Her Dark Sins

by T R Tells

  “So, basically kidnapping.”

  She leaned forward in her seat with her legs crossed and grinned.

  “I told you we would see one another again. Now, if you will cooperate with me, do you remember the incident on the roof with one Mahogany King?”

  My throat tightened. The images of Mahogany’s jump replayed in my mind. My nails dug into my palm, and the heart monitor started beeping loudly.

  “... W-What happened to her?” I whispered. I hated the weakness in my voice, and that I was at Alina Mulgrave’s mercy. “I-Is she… ” I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

  Alina Mulgrave placed her glasses and clipboard on the nightstand to the side. She clasped her hands together as she looked at me.

  “Mahogany King jumped off the roof on Saturday at around 10:35 in the morning. She is in intensive care and on life support, but she’s as good as dead. That is the only thing keeping her alive.”

  Fat tears collected in my eyes, and I tried to hold them back, but it was no use. My best friend was gone, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  A sob harbored in my throat, and the heart monitor beeped louder the more I let out cries of anguish.

  “...Now, before the jump, I would like to know what happened prior. There were interesting levels of radiation—”

  “D-Do you n-not have any s-shame!” I hiccupped as I struggled to speak through my tears. “You’re s-sitting there, heartless, and y-you want me t-to a-account what hap-pened?”

  Alina huffed, but the nonchalant expression on her face didn’t change.

  “I would rather talk about what happened in the last four days. Your readings have been off the charts, and as I said, the radiation that was picked up from the room was massive.”

  What? Did she just say four days?

  “But that doesn’t matter!” I yelled, still riled up. “Someone in your own hospital may very well be dead, and you aren’t even batting an eye! I’m starting to suspect you think we’re not even people, we’re only specimens.”

  My heart was pounding in my chest, and somewhere throughout my speech, I’d managed to sit up.

  Alina stared at me for a moment before she unplugged the monitor, and the loud beeping subsided. She turned back to look at me with a sigh. “It makes no difference whether someone lives or dies, we are all destined to die at some point, but some people are willing to choose death. I’m only here to see what causes that reaction in them.”

  I gritted my teeth and lunged for her, but unfortunately the restraints held me back, keeping me a few inches away from Alina’s face. I didn’t know how long we stared at one another, my eyes, filled with fury, looking into her cold and unfeeling green-blue ones.

  “Let me out,” I demanded..

  A tingling feeling traveled throughout my body, and Alina smiled. She removed a mirror from the nightstand and held it in front of my face so I could see my violet eyes illuminating brightly.

  “You aren’t going anywhere, Hira Night,” she said, putting down the mirror. I could see that her lips had widened into an even bigger grin. “There are things about you that can help me find the answers I’ve been searching for a long time.”

  My blood boiled,, but something in my gut warned me that this wasn’t right.

  ***

  Two brawny security guards with large muscles, one with a buzz cut, and the other with a bald head entered the room. They were wearing tight black t-shirts that exposed the cut of their muscles. They unbuckled my restraints from the bed. I was far too weak from the sedatives that dulled my senses as they plopped me down into the awaiting wheelchair beside the bed. There, they buckled me into the restraints along the chair’s arms.

  Alina stood at the doorway, typing something in her cellphone. She glanced up at me while one of the men wheeled me around.

  “I hope you’re comfortable,” she said with a smile. She knew damn well I wasn’t, and I stuck my middle finger at her.

  She tsked and shook her head, walking out of the room. The two men followed her as we rolled down an all-white hallway. The lights overhead were fluorescent, and the floors were a cream-colored tile. There were a few lone doors in the hall, but there was nothing inside but darkness. It was silent, except for Alina’s heels clicking against the floor, the men’s heavy breathing, and the wheelchair.

  “Where exactly are we, then?” I asked, looking at the back of the doctor’s head.

  She turned to slightly face me while she walked, and said, “Where it all started. Are you familiar with an incident that happened nine years ago?”

  “I am. In 2010 that was when a cult organization had emerged in Chicago’s Loop, and they wanted to cleanse the sins of humanity by raising ‘the Great One’.”

  She nodded in what I assumed was approval.

  “You seem to have done your homework. Yes, that was the first phenomenon that happened. The cult is still very active today and is trying to turn everyone into mindless, aggressive beings.”

  “You mean Apathy Victims, and the Umbra Shades who were summoned to steal their negativity for the Great One.”

  The doctor laughed.

  We stopped in front of a silver door, and Alina removed her badge to be scanned. The scanner turned green, and the door clicked open.

  She turned to look at me with an expressionless face.

  “I don’t believe in this Great One speech that’s been passed around. I believe in science. The Deviants that you call ‘Apathy Victims’ are merely ill patients. The research I have required over the years has led me to the cause of this. Hopefully, there’s a way to combat and fight against this unknown anomaly. I’m almost sure I’ve found the answers, but I need a lab rat that is neither dead nor unconscious.”

  I frowned at her words, but before I could respond, we entered through the doorway.

  The lights in the room turned on and exposed a giant science lab. Besides a bunch of computers that surrounded the area, there were also several dozen tubes.

  With people inside of them.

  My eyes widened, and for a moment my heart stopped before beating wildly in my chest. The goosebumps traveled down the length of my arms at the horror of seeing unconscious bodies floating in a blue liquid with tubes coming from all places of their body.

  In my state of shock, at some point, the brawny men that had pushed me here had left the room without me noticing.

  I was alone with Alina Mulgrave, a crazy psychopathic scientist.

  “Don’t look so afraid, Hira,” she said with her hand on her hip. “These people you see in these tubes were once part of the cult that I had picked up during the Alexandria Genesis project.”

  I frowned and furrowed my brows as the fear slowly began to simmer away.

  “What is that? Is that the project you had mentioned before about ‘my kind’?”

  She walked over to me, and I narrowed my eyes, tightening my hands in a fist. I couldn’t very well fight, but I would do what I could if she tried anything.

  She eyed me for a moment as she went to the restraints on my wrists—as if daring me to try anything—before unbuckling them.

  “Yes. Do you happen to like history, Hira?” she asked, then walked over to a desk across the room.

  I raised my brow and answered her, “Yes, why?”

  “I’ll be brief, but this happened to a girl named Alexandria. She was Patient Zero, the first to contract this ‘disease.’” For a split second, I watched as Alina grit her teeth, her entire body tensing. She took a breath, forcing herself to relax. “I slaved for days with my ex-husband to find a cure, but after many failed attempts, I knew that a cure was unattainable. If you can’t save them, then you might as well find a way to harness and control it. Study it, so the next phenomena don’t wipe out the human species.”

  I scoffed and shook my head. I wanted to get out of the chair, but my body was far too weak.

  “You’re a madwoman! What you are doing is kidnapping and is inhumane.”

  She shrugged. />
  “No more than what the cult is doing. They’re kidnapping people, they still are. Why do you think there are so many police reports of young women and men being taken? At least I’m doing the world a favor.”

  The doctor walked over to me to push my wheelchair. She turned it down the short hallway where there was another door on the right. From the corner of my eye, I noticed two figures inside the hollow tubes.

  My eyes widened.

  Officer Amoré, the cop the night of Alessander’s shooting, and Noah.

  They disappeared from my view as we entered the dark room.

  I couldn’t see in front of my face as the room was pitch black, and I was afraid that Alina would try to perform tests on me like I was a Frankenstein monster. Instead, I flinched as lights blinded me. I realized, after a moment, it was from a presentation being played on a slide.

  On the screen were several clips of what looked like circular cells with red spikes.

  “What you see here...” Alina said off to one corner of the room with the remote that controlled the slide. “Is the virus, and from my many fails and successes, I have figured out that it is replicating prions.”

  I hadn’t realized that I’d leaned forward, eager to hear what she had ‘figured out.’ There was still so much that I didn’t know about the phenomenon that caused this chaos.

  “These prions are very rare, and only three hundred cases are reported each year in the United States. They can’t be cured. The normal prions mixed with human cells and became abnormal, clumping in the brain. The effects of this can sadly interfere with a person’s memory, causing impairment, personality changes, and difficulty in movement.”

  Hence their slow, lethargic state — But why would a cult want to make it resemble a virus? Did they not want people to suspect anything and focus on ‘the disease aspect,’ or did they want panic to ensue?

  She continued, “...My thoughts are that the radiation that was exposed in these Deviants affected their cerebellum and it is spread the longer this virus is active. How they can do what they do is still a mystery, and my test has come up short in that regard, but that has never stopped me before.”

  “Well, it seems that you have all your answers, so why am I still here? I have people that would want to see me.”

  Alina smiled and clapped her hands.

  The white lights above turned on, and I winced from the brightness.

  Her heels clicked along the floor, echoing loudly in my ears as she slowly circled until she stood in front of me.

  “That’s because you are going to work for me. I know that you can find these Deviants— you’ve been in far too many incidents. I need samples, or for you to bring these Deviants to me so I can study this power further.”

  She rested her hands on the handles of the wheelchair behind my head. I leaned back, trying to create distance as she glared at me with hunger in her eyes. This was the first sign of emotion she’d shown me that she hadn’t immediately hidden away.

  It was like she lusted for the hidden power that made people Awakeners.

  “I believe you have control over the prions inside of you. Out of those that I have captured, you have been the most stable victim that hasn’t gone insane or died—since Alexandria—and I want to see if there are more of you out there.”

  “W-Why would I help you?” I said, taking a gulp of air.

  “Bartholomew!” Alina yelled and snapped her fingers.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw someone in a lab coat appear from a hidden door, carrying a manila folder in their hands. The tingling sensation sprouted at the back of my neck, and I recognized the brown-haired EMT, except he was wearing wire-rimmed glasses this time. He glanced my way briefly before handing the folder to her

  Again, he looked at me. So, I hadn’t imagined it. Did she not know? Even by the brief gaze, his ‘gray’ eyes vibrated, and I assumed he hoped I wouldn’t speak.

  And I wouldn’t.

  I noted the slight puff in his chest of relief, before leaving.

  I turned my attention back to Alina when she tossed the folder into my lap. I furrowed my brows at her, wondering what she was getting at.

  “I don’t think you want to refuse me. Open it.”

  I hesitantly grabbed the file as if the papers would detonate right there, and I opened it.

  My eyes widened, and my jaw went slack.

  Inside the folder was information on the Roe family, Helene’s parents.

  “They worked for me before their untimely accident,” she said as I watched her pace back and forth. I didn’t like how she said ‘accident.’ “And I would hate it if something happened to their precious daughter or her grandparents.”

  I dropped the folder onto my lap and gripped the wheelchair's arms. My body was heated, and I gritted my teeth.

  “And you’re just going to threaten my friend like that?”

  Alina held up her finger and wagged it.

  “Oh, no. I wouldn’t forget about your mother or brother, maybe even that nephew of yours. I do even remember your boyfriend: Alessander Drake. He had been at the incident at the same time as you when you developed your abilities. Remember how I told you it should have been impossible for him to survive? Perhaps, he possesses the prions, too…”

  You bitch. She was willing to threaten my friends and loved ones for her stupid project, and she didn’t even bat an eye.

  But what else could I do? If I wanted to keep those I loved safe, I would have to work for her.

  I relaxed my grip on the armchair and slumped back into the seat. It was almost like I could feel Alina smiling without even looking at her.

  “...Fine, I’ll help you; just leave them out of it.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I was back in Genesis Angelstone hospital so I could undergo physical therapy for a few weeks. Alina wanted her ‘merchandise’ fully recovered, even though I didn’t need it because of my healing factor. With the ‘meh’ hospital food and being blackmailed by a crazy woman, I was eager to get out of these four white plastered walls.

  My mom and Omari had stopped by to see me. My mother was ecstatic to know that I was alive and well. Uncle Garvy had come in a little late since he had to close up shop. They were all here for me, and they thought that everything was fine—I couldn’t tell them anything.

  Not even my uncle.

  “Are you sure that you’ll be okay for the night, Hira?” my mother asked me. She stood beside my bed, touching my forehead with the back of her hand. “I know I have to work early in the morning, but I can—”

  “I’ll be fine, Mom. You even said that Omari gets off at six.”

  My mother twisted her lips and sat on the side of the bed. “...You have something on your mind, Hira. You got that look on your face.”

  Jeez, am I really that easy to read?

  I glanced down at the folded hands in my lap and shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t know what to say to my mother that would form into something comprehensible. It was like—

  “—There’s a void in your chest, isn’t there?”

  I gasped and looked up into her calm eyes.

  “W-What do you mean?”

  “I’m sorry about Mahogany; losing someone that you love isn’t easy. You feel as if you’ve let them down, and you blame yourself.”

  My mother wasn’t crying, but her eyes were suddenly watery. I stared at this woman who I had always seen as someone fearless and robust, but I knew at that moment that she was speaking about Dad and his death.

  Had she been keeping this to herself this whole time?

  “Mommy?” I called out to her and reached for her hand, setting mine on top of hers. She gripped it tightly.

  She turned her head to look at me and smiled.

  “Don’t you think for a second that this is your fault, Hira. Do you understand me?” My heart squeezed as her words hit me. “As much as we want to, we can’t always save the ones we love, but it wouldn’t do us any good to beat ourselves up over it
.”

  My throat tightened, and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “But… If somehow we were to have the power to save them, shouldn’t we try as much as we can?” I asked. My eyes stung as I looked up at her.

  “You can always keep trying, baby, but no matter what ‘power’ we have, we’re only human, and we can’t save everyone. You need to give yourself the benefit of the doubt and not be so hard on yourself.”

  ...You can’t save everyone. Could I really forgive myself for what happened to Mahogany or Noah, even the police officer? There was something big that was going to happen, could I really forgive myself for not giving my all?

  My mother leaned forward and kissed my forehead, rubbing my cheek with her hand.

  “Rest, Hira, the doctors want to monitor your health. You’ve got loved ones here who want to see you better, and even when the chips are down, you’ll always have those closest to you.”

  My mother left, and her words replayed in my mind.

  ***

  I messaged Helene, telling her I would need to speak to her about the file on her family. She needed to know that, at least. There was a knock on the door a few moments after, and the door slid open to reveal Alessander holding a bouquet of lilies and a stuffed animal in his hands.

  “How’s the patient doing?” he asked with a grin on his face.

  He walked over and leaned down to kiss me.“Waiting to get out of this dismal prison,” I said once we pulled apart.

  He dragged a chair from the wall and to the bed, its legs screeching across the floor.

  He took a seat and handed me the flowers and stuffed animal. I put the flowers on the nightstand beside me and held the toy in my arms.

  “Thanks for the bear, he’s cute,” I said and squeezed him tight to my chest.

  Alessander chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. “It’s, uh, actually supposed to be a dog. You know, you always say if you can’t have a real dog, stuffed animals are the next best thing.”

  I held the mystery animal in front of me and examined it. It had floppy ears, but the face was round, and it didn’t have a tail.

  “Well, I love my dog-bear regardless; maybe I’ll call him ‘Bear’ for pun's sake,” I paused for a moment before speaking next, “How have things been since I’ve been here?”