by C. S Luis
Claudia immediately rose and came to stand before me. God, she was so fragile, like a delicate flower in the breeze, and her slender figure stood before me. I towered over her a bit, but she was far more delicate than me. I had always been a brawny man, tall and strong.
“Stay here. Keep the door closed, and I’ll return soon,” I instructed her. Claudia again dropped into my arms. She was making it hard to leave her; I exhaled again, my heart now inside my head, echoing madly from the walls of my chest at the link between us ripped a hole in me.
I gently pulled back. “It’ll be okay,” I assured her, stroking her cheek. With the briefcase in hand, I pulled away from her and walked over to the door and carefully opened it. I looked back at her a last time and said, “I’ll return soon. Keep this door closed, and lock it when I leave.” Claudia nodded, and with a tense smile, I closed the door behind me and waited until I heard Claudia from the other end locking it from inside.
I looked quickly towards the main office entrance; things looked quiet from this end through the office door window. I walked slowly with the briefcase in my hand and put a hand to the doorknob and pushed the door open and walked out. I now stood in the middle of the hallway, and I glanced back towards the office entrance and pulled out my key and locked it. Then I looked ahead and began to walk very slowly down the hall; at the far end I could see several bright lights coming from inside the cafeteria and knew he was there.
Project X was waiting, so I wouldn’t keep him waiting. I stopped and jerked the briefcase; at once it popped open, propelling the immobilizer into my hands. I dropped the briefcase as it landed in my hands and dashed at once towards the end of the hall. I slowed down as I approached the cafeteria entrance. The doors were wide open. I stepped over to the side of the wall, the immobilizer beside me armed and ready. All I needed was one shot, and it would be over, and my mission would be complete, and I would have my pay.
I slowly peered around the corner of the entrance and then came around; pointing the weapon up in front of me ready, but the only thing in front of me now was some insane whirlpool sitting in mid-air at the center of the cafeteria. It was quite large in diameter, at least large enough for two people to go through it side by side.
“What the fuck?” I hissed. Lifting the weapon, I walked closer and watched from a mere distance. I pulled out a meter, one of our many tools The Company requires us to carry. The readings were off the charts on the energy flowing from this thing. Where was it getting its energy source?
“Claudia,” I softly whispered; no wonder she was so disoriented. He was using her to feed his door, a door that would take her far from me, using her against herself. As long as Claudia was in my office, she was safe, and with the crystal in her possession, she would surely be guarded.
I came closer and extended a single finger to touch it; it felt like liquid, sticky bouncing liquid sticking to my finger, and I pulled my hand away. It projected back energy nevertheless.
I moved back, and I spun around to find Project X facing me.
I pulled the weapon forward, but he was far too quick, knocking it out of my hand, and then he flung me back, tossing me with his arm across the face. I flew back and landed on my back against hallway wall. Before I could recover and look for my weapon, hands grabbed my arms from out of the walls and held me in place.
“What the fuck!” I screamed. I tried to fight free but had no success. Through the wall now two figures side by side appeared from out of the sheet rock walls themselves. Their faces gleamed at me; they looked ill, no longer human as I had seen them before in the upstairs classroom.
They looked sick now, like worn-out puppets that had seen their expiration. In front of me another teenaged boy appeared, and he grabbed my throat, sticking me with his long fingernails. I tried not to scream, merely struggling to free myself; this was not a good position to be in. I was outnumbered, and my strength didn’t match theirs.
They were getting their strength from the same energy source: Claudia. They were using her against me, and she didn’t even know it. That could be the only explanation if she was the source. Yet they looked weak as I could now see Project X appeared; it was taking too much out of him. Their strength was his, and his weakness was theirs.
“You have been beat Venator!” The teen monster hissed, coming inches closer to me. His breath reeked; I moved sideways to avoid him.
“Give up!” He hissed again.
“Pal, I’ll do anything to keep you from breathing on me again. Do you mind?” I asked.
He didn’t seem to find me funny. He growled and lifted a hand towards me; from behind, a voice stopped him, and Project X approached. Our eyes met suddenly, and it was like a bad reunion of two forces trying to reach the same prize; although, I hadn’t realized it until that moment.
“The Venator is mine!” He yelled, and the teen shriveled back, bowing away from me to allow Project X to come closer.
“What do want with her? She's only a girl!” I growled over at him. His purple eyes challenged me with a wisdom I wasn’t prepared for.
“You don't know how important she is to me! You know nothing, Venator!” He yelled, coming forward.
“You can't have her!” I challenged sternly.
He came forward upon me. “Because you want her?” He asked.
I was shocked, and he gleamed when he realized it surprised me that he knew.
“But what you fail to understand Venator is that she already belongs to me,” he again said. The figures began laughing at my distress. “It's time for me to take my leave, and I'm taking her with me, and there’s nothing you can do stop me,” he hissed with a smile.
“No! I’ll never let you take her!” I screamed, but he started laughing at my feeble struggles. He was in a better position than I was, and my feeble lines seemed pointless and useless. What else could John Slater do?
Then I saw it; the weapon, it was but a distance away. If I could only reach it I might have a chance to escape and still secure my capture. But the alien spun around, following my eyes back towards where it sat, and he slowly walked over to where the weapon was. He reached down and lifted it off the floor. He examined it; it was a foreign thing to him, and slowly he turned it in his hands, almost presenting it to me.
“Is this what you want Venator?” He grimaced back at me, and I gasped in panic.
“Your weapon can't save you Venator,” he hissed and crushed it into a million pieces with his mere hands. Like a dry leaf, it crumbled to his feet.
“What the hell are you?” I gasped, and he merely smirked.
“Your end, Venator!” He growled.
What kind of alien does that? But then, when had I ever encountered an alien?
Good point John.
Oddities were my specialty, and he was something different. Bryce had never mentioned this.
Perhaps it had slipped his mind to tell us about this.
Why did I feel he was holding back? What the fuck was he holding back? Why was he holding back, especially now when it counted? It seemed I knew very little of the alien. Only now was I realizing this. I had underestimated it. I had thought it would have been an easy task, and I had been wrong. I obviously didn’t understand what I was really up against. My first encounter had not prepared me for our reunion.
“It's time to get my prize and time to bid you farewell my foe,” the alien hissed.
“You'll never get her to go with you. She won't go because she’s afraid of you!” I cried, and he began to move away from me. He stopped, and without turning or saying anything else, he waved a hand upward. The teen children that held me suddenly vaporized into the walls and disappeared, but their hands still held me; suddenly they began to pull me up the wall faster and faster with them.
“No!” I cried, realizing what was happening.
I suddenly understood with horror that I was being lifted up towards the ceiling, and as I looked up, I dreaded that at any minute I would hit the ceiling headfirst. I braced myself
but soon realized instead of hitting the ceiling I became swallowed by it instead. I was relived only briefly until I heard laughter all around me.
26
Claudia
I opened my eyes and sat up, and as I did, something dropped from my palm. I looked down and caught sight of the bright glowing red crystal Dr. Black had given to me. The charm he had called it.
It was glowing brightly. I picked it up and watched it as it sparkled alive, washing its glowing color upon my face. It was beautiful, but how was it doing that and why?
Then I heard a voice calling to me. I could feel it calling from outside the door. The fear in me grew. I didn’t want to open it. The crystal in my hands glowed brighter, and I gripped it tightly in my palm, afraid of the voices now coming from the other end to suffocate me with their cries. I put my hands over my ears to silences them. I wanted to scream to stop them in some way, but instead I closed my eyes briefly, too frightened to open them.
Then all at once they stopped. I quickly opened my eyes, and then suddenly the lights went out, and all I could see was the light from the crystal eerily glowing in my hand, and as I looked at the door, a bright light began to consume the crack beneath the door, and the light poured into the office.
Then it slowly faded, and I heard the most terrifying scream from down the hall. I knew it, and I felt it as it startled me inside my very being, and my hands trembled as I sobbed.
“Michael? Michael!” I screamed and raced to the door and unlocked it, and then I pulled it open, holding onto the crystal in my trembling hand. I approached the office entrance; there was light in the hallway, and the darkness was a mere illusion from this side. I came to the door and opened it, coming very slowly out into the hallway. In the far distance near the cafeteria he stood in a silhouette of light. It was just a mass of blackness at first, until it slowly faded, and I could see him clearly looking back at me.
“Michael!” I yelled and rushed forward until I felt the panic in his heart, the dread, the fear, and the warning in his soul. I stopped suddenly and then watched him merely standing there. He was trembling, and soon I realized why…
From the far distance where the cafeteria was I first saw the lights flood the hallway, and from inside it suddenly poured out into the hall, a large whirlpool of spinning light descending slowly out into the hallway and tilting towards us now.
I watched it slowly enter the hallway and move very carefully to the center of the hall until it was facing me. Its light was now brightly covering the hall in front of me with bright colors and energy that was making me lightheaded. Michael stood before it, a mere silhouette in the lights of the hall; he seemed unable to move.
Then I saw him, Quentin, as he stepped out and appeared from behind Michael. A smile gleamed from his pale face. The matted locks made him look more ghostly and ill-looking; in fact, he looked exhausted and weak, far paler than I had ever seen him before, and he frightened me.
“Why do you resist me?” He asked intoxicated, coming from around Michael.
Michael seemed unable to move, unable to react. He looked stiffened in place. In fact, he looked held in place by unseen hands and unseen bonds. His head was facing upward slightly in an uncomfortable pose while his arms pressed against the rest of his body. He held his teeth clenched as though he were in some kind of pain.
“Let him go,” I hastily and very nervously demanded, but when could I demand anything? I was scared, frightened, and didn’t know what to do.
“I will. I only want to give you the chance to accept my offer and come with me,” Quentin hissed and extended a hand out to me. “I want you, and I know you want me too.” Quentin’s purple eyes gazed over at me.
“Don’t do it! Claudia run!” Michael managed to say through stiffened lips, but as soon as those words left his mouth, he screamed, and a wave of energy shocked his body.
“No! Stop! Don’t!” I screamed, darting forward.
“Then stop this, and come with me now!” Quentin growled at me, extending his hand out again. “I need you, can’t you see that?” He begged, and the same tired eyes blinked back at me from that pale, ill looking face.
“My pet,” he softly again said. “I don’t want to hurt these humans, but I will do whatever it takes to get what I want, and I only want you.” He smiled.
And now the ball was in my court. I looked down at the crystal and slowly placed it upon the floor at my feet. I knew as he did not to bring it with me. Quentin’s smile spread as he motioned me to him now. I began to slowly walk down the hallway. I was trembling the entire walk down the long hall until I came closer. I saw Michael and the agony in his face, and I saw the devastating intoxication and desperation on Quentin’s face.
Michael gazed back at me, his lips parting in uncertainty, begging me to run, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t abandon him. I couldn’t just run and save myself. Oh, I loved him like I loved my father. He was a big part of my life now, just like Dr. Black was, like this place Milton had become.
A family.
I stopped but a few steps from Quentin as he faced me; he was dressed in the same dark leather scaly elegant outfit as always. It appeared more like a one-piece jumpsuit, with knee-high boots than anything else. I really examined him. His face was paper white, and although his age wasn’t obvious, I knew he was far beyond my years. I knew because he knew, and it was something he didn’t keep a secret from me.
He wanted me to know he had been looking far too long for me, and I wasn’t going to escape him now that he had found me. I could see that in his eyes, the history of his journey, one that I couldn’t understand but saw. How did I know? Did I already understand? And how? And why? Why me?
“I’m here. Now let him go,” I very firmly said, trying to sound brave, trying to sound strong. But he could see right through me. He could feel all the fear I felt, that I was scared. He could feel everything I didn’t want him to know.
“Claudia, don’t do it! Run! Run please! Run! You have to save yourself! I won’t let him take you away from me! I promised your grandfather that I would protect you! I can’t lose you, my dear!” Michael pleaded.
I gazed very lovingly back at him. “I’m sorry Michael, but I can’t. I don’t want anything to happen to you,” I answered as I watched him struggling, but he was unable to move.
Quentin began to laugh. “How can you protect her when she’s not yours to protect, you foolish mammal?” He snarled over at Michael. “She’s mine, and she has always been mine.” He gleamed. “So long I have a searched; so many years have I waited for this very moment,” he continued. “And now I’ve found you,” he hissed. “You don’t realize how long I’ve waited. I know you sense it, and in time you will understand the pain and the loneliness I’ve endured only to finally be with you.”
“I’ll come willingly, so just let him go,” I demanded, ignoring his words.
Quentin merely smiled. “As you wish, but first come closer to me,” he hissed, extending his hand to me.
I hesitated for a mere second and then slowly began to walk towards him, but before I could do so Alex suddenly leaped out from the corner of the hallway. And in her hand she held a crystal like the one Dr. Black had handed to me. She lifted it and planted it against Quentin’s pale face, and he screamed a curling scream and swung back and knocked the crystal out of Alex’s hand.
Alex’s action released Michael, and he looked out of it as he dropped to the ground on all fours. For a moment he just remained there until I realized what was happening. It seemed to happen so suddenly and so quickly.
“Run Claudia!” Alex’s voice awakened me suddenly, and only then did I move and grab hold of Michael’s hand and lead him away down the hallway.
“What’s going on?” Michael could only say, but I had no time to explain. We had to escape.
We raced down the hall. I only stopped when I realized Alex wasn’t behind us.
“What is that thing?” I heard Michael ask again as I looked back towards the end of the h
all. For a moment his words were lost in all the chaos and the confusion and the mist. I caught sight of a face I recognized.
He stared wide-eyed back at me; his mouth dropped, and at first I thought I saw fear in his eyes. I realized it was something else, a realization, a discovery, a growing idea of malice. At that moment I didn’t gather his name from the thoughts in his mind. My mind was elsewhere as I heard screaming and struggling from my dear friend Alex behind me.
The man disappeared around the corner from where he had first appeared, darting away in the other direction. And I knew that he now had become part of this in some form, but I didn’t know how. I looked back and tried to run to Alex, but Michael pulled me back when I darted in the opposite direction. I knew he hadn’t seen the man glaring at us from the corner at the end of the hall, but there was no time for that now.
“Claudia, no!” Michael yelled, holding me from moving.
“But she needs us!” I said, looking at the end of the hallway. Quentin now lifted Alex by the throat. Dr. Black suddenly approached us from behind, and Michael pulled me away with him when he saw him holding a large handgun in his hand.
Dr. Black directed his gun towards Quentin, moving forward and away from us. Michael and I blinked in disbelief. Dr. Black gazed back over at us as he was moving down the hall, and he stopped briefly.
“Who are you?” Michael suddenly questioned.
But Dr. Black didn’t answer; he looked back at me, finding my eyes, and my jaw dropped wide with shock.
“Dr. Black?” I uttered in disbelief. He looked battered and bruised, like he had been in a very bad fight and possibly had lost. He had blood on the corner of his lip and a few scratches on his manly jaw.
“Oh, sweetheart. Don't look at me like that,” Dr. Black simply said, surprising me and reminding me of my father’s words to me whenever I looked at him in such a manner.
