“Just a few side-effects, I suppose,” I say with clear sarcasm. “Am I right?”
“Something like that,” he replies. “He threw Doctor Moore against the wall, broke his arm, and then ran off with his girlfriend.” He points at me. “Your mother. Nia Stone.” He beams. “She looked so much like you back then. I knew there was something familiar about you when we first met.”
The memory of him raiding my house flashes in my mind. The gun aimed at me. That confident, smug look of satisfaction as he stood under the attic hatch. “Go to hell! This is all bullshit!”
“Why would I lie?” Michael asks with frustration. “You know it’s the truth. Peter Stockman is your father, whether you want to admit it or not. And he did run off with your mother. But we couldn’t let him. Not in that state. Not after everything he knew about the project. Our entire department was top secret. We had to bring him in fast.”
“Okay, then,” I say. “Let’s say I do believe you. Let’s say you did infect my father. Where’s the proof?”
“You want proof? Okay, then.” Michael nods. “Your father’s here.”
“Really?” I reply, humouring him. “Here?”
“Yes,” he replies. “At The Facility.”
Don’t listen to him. He’s a liar.
I free my wrist from the strap.
Michael gestures to the door. There’s a self-satisfied look on his face. “Do you want to see him?”
25
Doctor Moore has gone. It’s just Michael and I, walking along the corridor, heading to God-knows-where. A prison cell, maybe? The furnace to burn me alive?
It’s definitely not to meet my long-lost father, that’s for damn sure.
But what if he’s telling the truth? What if my father is alive?
Shut up, Freya. He’s manipulating you. This is exactly what he did when he turned up at the house. He filled you with bullshit just to get to Ben.
He’s a lying sack of shit!
Thoughts of tackling him stab at my brain, but he has a gun by his side. I’m fast—but not that fast. And the element of surprise has long gone because everyone already knows I’m here—which makes it nearly impossible to break Ben out. For now, I’ll have to bide my time, follow this dumb story about my father. The longer I play along, the closer I get to Ben.
We reach an orange door with the words ‘Restricted Access’ written in large letters. Michael enters a code in the security panel, and the door opens with a puff of air escaping. I follow him along a white corridor, the lights above automatically switching on as we walk. He opens a glass door and we step into a dimly-lit room.
“Why so dark?” I ask, hovering by the doorway, my ears and eyes tracking the sound of beeping. Is that a heart-rate monitor?
“Pete is a little sensitive to the light.” The gun is by his side. Should I make a run for it? Seal him in? “We try to make him as comfortable as we can.”
Reaching for the wall, he pushes a switch. “He’s getting better though, so I’m sure a few minutes of light won’t hurt.”
The urge to run dissolves when the room lights up, and my focus instantly locks to the centre of the lab.
What the fuck!
Horrified, my breath clinging to my throat, I witness something that no teenager should have to. Something far worse than seeing Ben come into the world. Far worse than coming face to face with a purebred. At least vampires have human qualities. Thin bodies. Normal heights.
But this thing is not human.
Far from it.
I work my eyes around its gigantic blue frame. The white blanket struggling to cover the entire length. Eight-feet tall, at least. Jet-black fingernails like daggers. Muscles plagued with bulbous, pulsating veins. A jagged chin and skeletal nose attached to an oversized bald head.
I point at it, my arm shaking, mouth dry with fear. “What the hell is that?”
Michael walks to its bedside and sits on a stool. “This is Peter. Your father.”
I shake my head in revulsion. “You’re lying! That thing is not my father!”
“I wish it were ‘bullshit’, Freya. I really do. I wish none of this had happened. I wish we’d never met Doctor Moore. But we all have to live with the consequences.”
The walls are closing in on me. My lungs tightening. And now all I see is the bed.
And this monster.
“What do you want with it?” I ask, breathless.
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you keeping it alive? Get rid of it!”
“We can’t do that,” Michael replies. “He’s too important.”
“It’s a monster!” I scream, just as an explosion of tears leaves my eyes.
“No, he’s not. He’s your father.”
“That’s not my father!”
I feel woozy. My legs turn to jelly and I lose my balance. Michael wheels a stool over to me, and I sit.
“No matter how hard it is to believe,” he says, “this really is your father. Some point after he ran off, you were conceived. We didn’t know you existed until I came to your house. Until your mother fell through the ceiling. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d never see her again. The woman had managed to stay hidden for eighteen years. God knows why. She was perfectly safe. All we needed was for her to stay quiet about the project. That’s all. Just a standard gagging order.”
“Don’t talk shit!” I throw my words like rocks. “You would have killed her!”
Michael lets out a short chuckle. “In spite of what you think of me, Freya, I’m not a murderer.”
“You shot my mother, you bastard!”
There’s a tray of surgical instruments on the steel worktop. Should I go for the scalpel? Slice his throat open?
“That was an accident. The bullet wasn’t meant for her.”
“No, it wasn’t. It was meant for my brother. How is that any different, you prick?”
I take a subtle step towards the tray.
“Your brother is a Hemovore. Another side-effect. They’re not people. They’re not your family.”
“They’re just soldiers,” I say with a smug grin. “Isn’t that right? Isn’t that why you’re keeping so many alive?” I point at the monster. “You failed with this soldier, so why not use a few purebreds instead? Am I right?”
“There’s a lot about your father’s condition that worked. He got stronger. Faster. Just like Ben. Just like you. Except, you got all the good stuff. Health. Strength. Humanity. Ben is your half-brother. For whatever reason, he ended up becoming something else.”
“And how do you explain all the other vampires? Where the hell did they come from?”
“From your brother.”
“From Ben? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Michael replies. “At first, we couldn’t understand how this thing could have spread. Especially since your father has been in a coma for eighteen years. But then I found your mother and brother living in Ammanford. Ground zero. That’s when all the pieces started to fit. You said yourself your brother got sick right after he was born. That’s when his DNA would most likely have mutated, turning his condition into a virus. Gone airborne, maybe.” Michael picks up a cloth from the worktop, and then wipes the drool from the creature’s mouth. “So, now we’re trying to put things right.”
“If you really want to put things right,” I take another step towards the scalpel, “then you’ll let my brother go.”
Michael shakes his head. “I can’t do that, Freya.”
“Then what now? Are you going to kill me? Is that why you’re telling me all this?”
“Of course not. We just need to run some tests on you.”
I release an obvious fake laugh. “Over my dead body. Your doctor friend has already sliced my arm.”
“That was just a little test to see your healing capabilities. That’s all.”
“That’s all? That’s all?” I reach out and grab the scalpel, pointing the blade at Michael. “How about I ta
ke a slice out of your arm instead? Or better yet—your throat?”
Michael aims his rifle at me.
“Go ahead!” I snap, the scalpel somehow steady in my grip. “Shoot me! See if I care! Then you’ll have nothing but dead blood to examine.”
“You’re right.” He lowers the gun. “It was an empty threat. I’d never shoot you. It’s counterproductive.”
“Good,” I calmly say—and then lunge forward, the blade directed at his chest. Michael side-steps, and I lose my balance, cracking my head against the bed. The bed shifts slightly and the monster’s arm slips off the mattress. Through foggy vision, I watch its thick veiny fingers, its swollen forearm swing like a pendulum in front of me. In dismay, I scurry under the grotesque limb and get back on my feet. “I’m gonna cut your stinking head off!” I scream at Michael.
“I don’t want to fight you,” he says. “But I will put a bullet in your leg if you don’t settle down.”
“Go to hell!”
Like a wild bull, I charge at him, but I’m met with the quick swipe of the gun, the handle catching my face, dropping me to the floor. In agony, the blade leaves my hand, sliding under the worktop.
“I warned you, Freya.”
On my hands and knees, I think about Mum bleeding to death. The memory sends an overwhelming surge of anger through me, forcing my body to stand, to ignore the pain, to ignore the blood running down my face, to just rip this murdering bastard to shreds. I storm towards him, but I’m instantly taken down to the floor with a leg sweep.
“Stop this, Freya,” Michael pleads. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then you shouldn’t have killed my mother!” In desperation, I try to stand, but my limbs are like iron. Get up! Don’t let this arsehole beat you!
‘Nia?’ a voice says in my head.
I stop in my tracks when I hear the name.
‘Run, Nia.’
“Ben?” I call out, scrutinising the room. He’s not here.
‘They’re coming, Nia.’
It doesn’t sound like Ben. This voice is deeper. Clearer. More human sounding.
‘Don’t let them take you.’
“Your brother’s not here,” he says. “But he’s perfectly safe. You just have to be—” A look of disbelief cuts his own sentence short. His focus is no longer on me.
It’s behind me.
The blue monster is sitting up on its bed. The white blanket on the floor. The wires hanging loose from its muscular chest. Its globular, bloodshot eyes are wide open. Bright yellow irises. Sockets dark blue and sunken.
And it’s looking straight at me.
With a gaping jaw, Michael drops his gun, allowing it to dangle by its strap.
“Pete?”
26
I can’t scream. I want to, but no sound passes my lips.
My body turns to stone.
“Get back,” Michael whispers to me; his words shaky, his posture stiff.
Skin crawling, I will my legs to move, and I creep backwards until I hit the wall, my eyes never leaving the giant vampire.
Michael edges towards it, but his gun is still hanging from his shoulder. Why isn’t he using it? “It’s me, Pete. It’s Michael. Do you remember me?”
The creature’s eyes are crusted from an eighteen-year sleep. It moves its head, barely, and then reaches out to Michael with its enormous hand, at least four times the size of mine. Michael puts his own hand out. Just before their fingers meet, the creature slips off the bed, landing on the floor with an earth-shattering thud.
I grimace in fright, my fingernails digging into the wall, my heart beating violently.
Michael kneels down in front of the creature. “It’s all right, buddy,” he says, his voice soft, unthreatening. “Take it slow.”
Attempting to stand, the creature pushes off the floor with its knuckles. It gets a few inches, but its thick, muscular legs give way.
To my left—just two metres away—I spot the door. I’ll make a run for it.
The creature scans the room. “You’re safe, Pete,” Michael says. “You don’t have to worry.”
An echoing growl of agony, of anger, escapes the monster’s throat. The sound is aimed at Michael. The creature tries to stand again, this time using the bed for support.
“I’m here to help you, Pete.”
Another snarl. Michael backs away, his hand hovering over the rifle’s handle.
With one eye on my exit, I take a cautious step towards it, sliding my back along the wall.
“Stay calm, buddy,” Michael says with one hand out in front as a barrier, the other now gripping the rifle. “I’m your friend. It’s Michael. Michael Matthias.”
His words bring about a third growl, this time much louder, more ferocious.
Michael takes another step back, while I take one closer to the exit.
The creature spots my movement and turns towards me.
And then I hear its voice in my head again.
‘Nia.’
I stop in fright, unsure of what to do next.
“Do you remember me?” Michael asks him. “I’m your friend.”
The creature’s eyes return to him.
“We grew up in Bridgeside. Do you remember, buddy? We used to play with—”
The creature lunges forward, grabbing Michael by his waist, and then tosses him across the room. He crashes, headfirst, into the steel desk, the force smashing the computer, electrical sparks spraying out of the cracked monitor.
And that’s when I run.
In a frenzy of terror, I rush to the door, barging it open with my shoulder, the glass nearly shattering. Don’t look back. Sprinting down the narrow corridor, I hear the sound of heavy footsteps behind me. It’s following me. The orange door is directly ahead. There’s a large red button by the handle. Reaching out with an open hand, I press it the moment I arrive at the door. There’s a loud puff of air, and the heavy door unlocks. I shove it open and scramble out into the main corridor of The Facility. Just as I attempt to close the door behind me, the creature is there, snarling, clawing at the opening. I push with everything I have, but its too strong, too aggressive, and I’m propelled across the corridor, hitting the opposite wall with my shoulder. There’s no time to react to the pain, so I pick myself up and run.
I hear men shouting behind me.
And screaming.
Lots of screaming.
Two HCA officers are standing in front of me, their eyes swollen with horror, their rifles pointed ahead. This time they’re not aimed at me. I’m the least of their worries.
Gunfire fills the air, the sound recoiling off the walls, deafening. More HCA pass me.
More gunfire.
I turn down another corridor. Then another. This one seeming endless.
Out of breath, and with no exit in sight, I stop and try one of the doors, maybe hide until it’s safe again. Locked. This one has a standard keyhole. Nowhere to swipe my ID card. “Shit!” I barge it with my shoulder, but nothing happens.
Another gunshot echoes behind me.
It’s coming.
I sprint further along and find another door. This one has the usual security panel. More gunfire. I plunge my hand into my pocket and grab the ID. With sweaty fingers, the card slips from my grasp and lands on the floor. I scoop it up, and then stand.
I hear a click by my ear.
“Don’t move,” a female voice says.
Putting my hands up, I peek over my shoulder and find Erin pointing a gun at my head.
“I said don’t move!”
“We have to hide,” I say with urgency. “It’s not safe.”
“Keep your mouth shut—or I’ll blow that pretty little head of yours off.”
Oh, Jesus! She doesn’t know what’s happened. “There’s a monster coming!”
“You think I’m playing with you? You think I won’t splatter those tiny brains all over the wall?”
“I’m not playing with you. We have—”
Erin pushes the
barrel into the back of my neck, the metal digging into my skin. “Now turn around!” she barks.
I do as she says, facing the way I just came from. “Can’t you hear the gunfire?”
“Start marching, Blondie.”
I point in front. “There’s a giant vampire wiping out half the HCA. They’re shooting at it! Listen!”
“It’s just a couple of vamps on the run. Now move!”
My footsteps are slow as each one brings me closer to danger. “It’s not a couple of vampires. It’s something else. Something huge.”
There’s a loud scream as we arrive at a junction. Then the sound of glass smashing.
“Stop.” With the gun still aimed at me, Erin moves past me to check around the corner. She shudders when the roar of a wild animal ripples along the corridor. “What the hell was that?”
“I told you. It’s a monster. Something Michael and Doctor Moore cooked up.”
Erin edges forward, the gun pointed in front of her. “It’s probably just...Oh my God!”
The snarl of the beast reaches us instantly, and we both retreat, with me leading the way.
Panting, I glance over my shoulder. It’s coming, sprinting like a cheetah, its clawed feet scraping the floor, tearing up the concrete like dirt.
Mid-run, Erin fires her rifle, catching it in the leg. The creature rolls on the floor, slamming into the wall.
Both skidding across the floor, we turn a corner. I open a random room and dive inside. Erin follows me in, closing it behind us.
In the darkness, I lean against the wall, holding my breath, my heart pounding. Erin is beside me, shoulder to shoulder.
And we wait.
An alarm goes off outside. A shrill siren, penetrating the walls around us.
The creature’s feral cry overwhelms the alarm.
Hands shielding my aching eardrums, I close my weeping eyes and wait for the madness to end. Everything will be all right. You’re gonna get through this. You’re gonna get out of here alive. Alive, and with Ben by your side. They have lots of men. Lots of guns. They’ll kill that thing.
Wipe that monster off the face of the earth.
Blue Skin (Book 3): Blue Skin Page 7
