by Leigh Vernon
Justin scoffed at him.
---
"What are they doing?" Sarah asked. "Why are they both frozen in space like that?"
Shay took a long look at what she was saying. He was sure he had seen something similar to this before a long time ago - he just couldn't place a time to it. Then, he remembered.
"Come on," he said to Sarah. "Help me with his body."
"Why? What's going on?"
"They're having a battle inside of him. It doesn’t matter who wins; we don't want to be here when they get back," Shay explained. "It's bound to be messy."
They both lifted Justin and got him out of the building. Shay found a car and they put him in it. Then, they both waited outside.
---
Justin grabbed Sam and pulled him closer to himself. As he tried to stab him with the sword, the man escaped by inches and moved back to his former position. Justin felt something touch his body and he stopped. He realized Shay and Sarah had gotten out of the building. He smiled - his goal had been achieved.
"See you on the other side," he said to Sam as he pushed him out.
"How long did you say this would last again?" Sarah asked.
Shay rubbed his hands together. "Depends. If Justin is wise enough, he won’t let him linger there for too long. Otherwise..."
"Otherwise what?" Sarah asked. Her look told him she was petrified.
"He'll take over and have him killed."
"And what happens next?"
Shay turned. "His body becomes..."
He didn't finish the words.
"Where's the body?" Sarah asked.
---
Justin ran towards Sam with the sword raised. He made sure his timing was perfect as he raised his hands to the sword. His body glowed brightly, sending out sparks. Sam opened his eyes just in time to get cut by the sword.
"You... How did you know?" The voice was a mixture of Sam's and the dark figure.
"You gave me a heads up," Justin said before he blasted the body with all his might.
The body burned out, leaving the dark figure behind. It tried to get to Justin, but he was quicker, slicing it into two with the sword in his hand.
"Say hello to the devil when you get back to where you came from," he shouted at the figure, before he raised both hands and sent a ball of fire towards it.
The figure burned brightly, sending out an awful smell that Justin covered his nose against. All too soon, everything became quiet again.
I'll be back.
Justin turned quickly. There was no other person in the room with him. He sighed and dropped to the ground, too exhausted to go any further. There were bodies strewn all around him, many of them burned by the blast he had created. His eyes closed steadily as he heard voices and two pairs of feet, and realized Sarah and Shay had come back inside. His eyes fluttered for a while before they finally snapped shut.
Chapter 26
Sarah sat on the porch of the little house. It had been weeks since the police raided the mansion of the former governor and found bodies lying all around the house. No one knew where Sam was; the Mayor was presumed dead after a few weeks of searching and a burial was given in his honor. She was angry when she heard about it.
"That's the way of the world," Shay had told her. "He was a hero to many. No one would have believed you if you said otherwise."
She snickered. A hero indeed.
"Hey! You good?" Justin asked her as he sat beside her.
"Yeah. What's up?" She asked, facing him.
"I don't know. I have to go milk the cows and feed the horses."
Sarah laughed at him. "You said you wanted to retire to an old farm and do these things. I didn't make that choice for you."
"Haha, very funny."
He got up and walked down the stairs, and Sarah watched him go. She realized that everything that had happened has changed him. He was different from the man she had seen the first time; he was more confident now, more prepared for whatever was coming, like Shay had said before he left. She knew he would save the world again if it came to it. What she didn't know was what role she was going to play in the coming days, like Shay had told her.
"Keep him on his toes," he had said. "What is coming is far more dangerous than what we've already seen."
"Another Sam?" She had asked.
He walked to the door and stood there. "I don't think there will be anyone as daring as Sam in a long time to come, but there will be more battles to be fought in the coming days. Justin will have to face his greatest fear."
"I think he's afraid of being a dad," she had teased.
Shay laughed a little. "It's worse than you can possibly imagine."
He left that day without any clue as to where he was going. Justin had been mad at first, but she made him realize it was for the best.
"Yeah, right. So is owning a farm on the edge of the country."
Epilogue
Father Albert turned slowly. He thought he might have heard something, but shrugged it off. No one knew where he was or what he was doing, and even if anyone did find him, it would be impossible to get through to him before he was finished.
The machine whirred loudly, going back and forth over a body that lay underneath it. Father Albert moved towards the body and tapped it with something in his hands.
"Ouch! That hurts," it answered him.
Father Albert sighed and walked back to the microphone. "Subject now responsive to stimuli. Moving on to the next phase."
He got back up and stopped the machine.
"Get up," he said to the body.
As it crawled out from underneath the machine, the body looked at him confusedly.
"Did I not do well?" It asked.
"You passed your tests wonderfully, son. Even better than I had hoped."
It smiled mechanically. "So, what is it?"
"What do you mean?" Father Albert asked turning to face it.
The body got into the tracksuit Father Albert had brought in and sat down on a metal table. "You want to harvest the dark matter and use it to create another me. You want to kill me!"
Father Albert stumbled backwards. The experiment had been successful; the subject had been playing him.
"How long have you known?" He asked, grabbing a bottle of whiskey.
"Long enough to know you're a double-dealing bastard."
Father Albert smashed the body against the wall and ran around to the other side. The subject glared at him with pure hatred and venom.
"I always have insurance policies for everything I do," the old man said as he lit a cigarette. "You should have thought of that as well."
He threw the cigarette towards the whiskey and a fire started. He ran out of the lab quickly, shutting the door behind him. He pressed the recorder in his hands.
"Test failed - subject being controlled by dark energy matter. Proceeding to the lab for new testing."
There was a car waiting for him outside, with a man standing by the passenger door. As soon as he approached, the man opened the door and waited till he was inside before running to the other side and settling behind the wheel.
"Where to, sir?" He asked brightly.
"The airstrip," Father Albert answered. "I need to go meet my buyers."
---
Someone arrived at the burning lab a few moments later. He tore the door open and found his way through to the subject on the floor who was gasping for air.
"Breathe," he said to it.
He helped the subject out and placed it against a wall. As soon as the subject felt better, it turned towards the man.
"Who are you?" it asked.
"My name is Adam. I am a prototype."
The subject looked down. "My name is Justin. Father made me, and now he wants to destroy me."
Adam smiled. "He made me too. When he saw that I couldn't do the things he wanted, he had me dumped near a nuclear reactor so I would rot and no one would know I was there. I got lucky."
He stretched out his hand
, and it travelled far enough to reach a nearby house. It returned with a bottle of beer.
"What did he make you?" The subject asked.
"Nothing. The reactor made me what I am."
Adam drank the beer and threw the bottle away.
"I've been looking for Justin since then. Not you - the original Justin."
The subject got up and walked to where he was. "Where is he?"
Adam got up. "There was a time I was very close to finding him, but he managed to slip through my hands."
The subject snickered. "I guess you have to keep looking."
Adam gave him a queer look. "Don't you want to know why I'm looking for your original version?"
"To become like him?"
Adam nodded. "That's more like it. But if I can kill him, there's a way to extract his DNA and build myself an army of powerful Justins."
The subject didn't say anything in return. "My fight is not with this Justin guy. My fight is with Father, and the longer he is alive, the angrier I feel."
"Do you want me to tell you a secret?" Adam asked.
"I'm listening."
"When I find Justin and kill him, because I will, his powers will be mine. Then, I can go after anyone in the world I want."
The subject looked at him properly, his interest was piqued. "Anyone?"
"Anyone," Adam repeated. "Including fathers who try to kill their sons because they are representations of their failures."
The subject nodded. "How do we find this Justin guy?"
Adam walked forward and stopped before a rock. He picked it up and threw it at a bird that was hovering over him. The bird fell to his feet, dead. He grabbed the stone again and walked back to the subject.
"We need to give you a name," he said.
"Isn't Justin appropriate?" The subject asked with a dead smile on his lips.
"You can't bear his name. It would be confusing." Adam looked at the bird in his hand. "How about Crow?"
"Sounds appropriate enough," the subject replied. His smile had not left his face.
Dear Reader,
Hope you have enjoyed the ride. If you have enjoyed the book…
…could you kindly leave a review?
Thanks,
Leigh
P.S. Reviews are like giving a warm hug to your favorite author.
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