by T R Tells
And this was why I wanted to smack Solomon ninety percent of the time.
“Anyways, I didn’t come over to like, harass your ideals or anything.” Shocker. “I actually wanted to give my condolences, you know, to Mahogany and all.”
My heart slammed on its brakes, and I suddenly wanted to sink into the floor. The dread that had been lifted—finally getting a break and not thinking of anything—came back and suffocated me.
I hadn’t expected that from Solomon. “... I heard that her parents were, you know, and it’s not fair that they did. I’ve always liked Mahogany, feel me, and not because she was bangin’, but I could tell that she was going through some shit with her parents. I could tell, even though she never said it, that she was trapped and wanted to find any kind of way out. It’s like, you can’t do anything about the situation you’re in because either you just can’t, or no one believes you.”
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to feel right now. Whether I was sad because of the thought of her parents pulling the plug on her, or conflicted that it seemed like Solomon was going through the same thing with someone abusive. He thought that the only way out was suicide, and that it had been Mahogany’s choice.
Or maybe it was, since the Umbra Shade was reflecting her thoughts.
“Mahogany didn’t choose to kill herself,” I managed to say. “And shit is messed up, but suicide is not the answer and should never be the solution.”
My skin was boiling, and my body was getting hot underneath my coat. My chest was getting tighter, and my breathing became hitched. I had to lean on the side of the couch so I wouldn’t lose my footing.
“Woah, woah, my bad. I didn’t mean to rile up your feathers, Hira.”
Thankfully, Helene stepped in between us and held out her hands to keep some distance between us.
“What she means is that you should enjoy yourself elsewhere, and we’ll do the same. But if you ever do need to talk to someone seriously, talk to someone you trust, a therapist, or heck, make conversation with a person. Spilling out how you feel can be helpful, even if things might be shit.”
Despite the loud music pounding throughout the house, it was like Solomon, Helene, and I were the only people in the room.
“Yeah, yeah, alright, cool,” Solomon said, averting his eyes, and he sauntered back through the crowd.
Helene turned to face me.
“You want to go to the bathroom?”
I nodded. My tongue was dry, and my stomach flipped, which I knew wasn’t from any bad situation, but from my own guilt.
“Alright, give me your phone, and I’ll text Alessander where we’re going.”
I did wonder what was taking him so long, and thought there might have been a line, or maybe he was caught in the fray of dancing people.
Helene handed me back my phone, and we went to the next floor of people making out on the stairs. The lights above us were dimly lit and red, giving the hallway an eerie kind of feeling.
The long line of people leaning against the wall indicated we had found the bathroom.
“I can only imagine what is keeping the line—Is that Amelia?” Helene jutted her chin to someone waiting. They were wearing a blue dress and carrying a picnic basket with a stuffed animal that looked like a dog inside of it.
She turned her head and rolled her eyes when she saw us.
“Seriously?” She had to shout over the music. “What are you doing here? It seems like I can’t go anywhere without bumping into you two.” Even though her words were harsh, there was a genuine smile on her face.
We approached and stood in the middle of the hall beside the bathroom line.
“We should ask you the same,” I said. “You’re out of the house.”
Amelia hunched her shoulders. “Yeah, well, Alexei dragged me here .” She looked at Helene’s costume and then back at me.
“Okay, yours, I totally get, but you came as some kind of anime or something?”
Helene widened her eyes, feigning shock. “Wow, I’m just surprised you know what anime even is.”
Amelia rolled her eyes again. “Alexei says I should get into a few of the popular ones. He was suggesting I do a side panel on that kind of thing.”
I raised my brow.
“So, you're open-minded about things now?”
“Don’t get too excited. It’s hard, but I thought about it, and it’s the right thing to do. I have a voice and fans that support it. I talked to several committee members in the LGBTQIA+ and some members of the board to make a few changes. It wasn’t much, and it’s nothing big, but the principal agreed to a Winter Pride festival in the school.”
I couldn’t believe it, and thought maybe I had misheard her over the loud music. But when I looked at Helene, she was grinning from ear to ear.
“You knew about this?”
“Yeah, it was decided while you were in the hospital. I was waiting for the right time to tell you.”
I wanted to relish the moment that finally something meaningful was taking place, but my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, and the message from Alessander made my heart drop.
Alessander: Trey is here… with Mahogany.
“Hira, what is it?” Helene asked. I showed her my phone, and her lips fell into a frown as well.
I turned back to Amelia. “We’ll talk later.”
Helene and I turned back around so we could make our way downstairs. The back of my neck tingled before two people in Purge masks stood in front of us, blocking our path. I couldn’t see their faces, but I could tell that one was a girl with dark brown skin and short-cropped lime-green hair. The guy that stood taller than the girl had long peppered gray hair with an undercut fringe that steadily fell in his face.
They both had illuminating, violet eyes.
Helene stood in front of me and opened her palms, ready to fight if needed.
“What the hell do you two want?”
The girl tilted her head to the side, and even though she was wearing a mask, I could tell that she was smiling. My stomach did a flip, and I knew that them being here was no accident.
“We’ve come with us a message,” she said directly to me.
“—From the Dark Ordinance,” he finished afterward. “What message?” I said, holding Helene’s shoulders back. We didn’t want any confrontation.
“You are interfering in something that you do not understand, Hira Night; and by association, Helene Roe, you are at fault, as well.”
Helene’s knee-jerk reaction had her lurching at the two, but neither of them flinched. I stepped in front of Helene, keeping her behind me.
I turned to look at the guy. “How do you know our names?”
“Our Father knows all, and he’s been keeping tabs on you. He’s hoping you can cooperate, or else.”
I frowned and snorted. “Or else what?”
The girl laughed before speaking, “Don’t test our patience, girl. You’re wielding power that you can’t even comprehend where it came from, or what it represents.”
I turned to face the girl and stepped to her so we were only an inch apart.
“I know enough to know that people are suffering from unjust actions forced upon them.”
“They are unjust,” the girl’s words were callously spoken, and it sent a shiver up my spine.
“You have been warned,” the guy said, and I turned my head to look up at him. “If you continue to intervene again, you won’t like what the Ordinance does next.”
Slowly, they backed away. The guy touched the girl’s shoulder, and their shapes were distorted until I could no longer hold onto their image.
Was that one of their powers? Was I really a target of suspicion by the cult that started this entire outbreak?
I hadn’t even realized I was hyperventilating, or that Helene was shaking my shoulder.
Then I remembered Mahogany.
I rushed to the main stairs and pushed past people in my way, not caring if they glared angrily at me. I stood at the top
of the staircase and scanned the crowd, where I saw the only two people without any costumes standing by the door.
Trey was there, but there was a dark look in his eyes that seemed far away—not like the Trey I had come to love—and beside him was Mahogany. My skin prickled, and I gasped, realizing that not only was my friend alive somehow, but she was also an Awakener.
Her skin was pale, and her eyes glistened violet as she smiled at me. There was no sadness or overbearing cloud over her head, but for some reason… This Mahogany seemed different.
I couldn’t even muster out her name and watched her and Trey leave out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I received no reply when I tried to contact Mahogany or Trey. Not even Trey’s brother knew where he was and had already put out a missing person’s report. I was sure that Mahogany’s parents didn’t know where she was, and I was pretty sure that was the last place she’d appear.
So, how did she find me?
I had the same sensation I usually did when I first saw an Awakener. Had my friend become one? Or both of them?
I could’ve sworn that I sensed something around Trey, and Mahogany wouldn’t have been able to conquer her Umbra Shade and negativity by herself.
And then there was the matter of The Dark Ordinance. I couldn’t begin to process the fact that people were watching me, specifically their leader that wanted me to stop what I was doing. I admit that at the time, I wasn’t afraid, but thinking about it now and how those two cult members seemingly disappeared made me sick to my stomach.
I made a call.
“So, what made you want to come into the shop and help?” Uncle Garvy asked as we were putting a new shipment of books on the shelves.
“I just wanted to get back to normalcy after… everything,” I said. It was a strange feeling not to tell my uncle what had been happening, but with Alina’s threat and the Dark Ordinance keeping tabs on me, it would make him put his foot down and stop me from fighting.
He might even tell my mother if it came down to it.
“Everything, huh?” he pondered. He was on the other side of the bookcase, where I could see him through empty book slots. “...I heard about Mahogany, and Trey. I’m sorry, Hira.”
My throat tightened, imagining their pale faces at the Halloween party. Still, every time I thought about them, either Alina or the cult came back into my mind, reminding me that I had more on my plate. How was I able to stop them and save people from their negativity when everything was happening all at once?
“Thanks, Uncle Garvy. I’ve had time to… let it sink in,” I said, clutching one of the book’s spines in my hand. I didn’t hear Uncle Garvy walk beside me and wrap his arm around my shoulders.
I peered up at the concerned look on his face.
“‘The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.’”
I furrowed my brows, finding the sentence familiar, but I couldn’t recall where it was from.
“The Canto VI of Dante’s Inferno, remember?” Ah, that was right. It seemed so long ago now, I had forgotten about our project. “You might not think I noticed, but I can tell that you have a lot going on.”
I frowned. “Why, do I have that look on my face again?”
He smirked. “Let’s call it a hunch. Your dad was better at it, he could read people like an open book.”
I stayed silent. Hearing things about my father made my chest hurt, but there was also an itch there like something was trying to get my attention.
“I can’t say I know exactly what’s going on, but putting yourself through the wringer isn’t going to help anyone. It’s only going to make things worse. You don’t need to be the best, the strongest, or the smartest—you just need to be there and see the truth, not their truth.”
“And what is the truth?” I asked. I’d been wondering about that for the longest time.
Uncle Garvy released my shoulders and turned to me. He reached out his hand and poked my forehead. “Isn’t it obvious? Even if you’ve never said it, you stood to be the symbol of peace when you saw injustice in the world.”
He put down his finger and smiled. I frowned.
“Why do you think your father named you ‘Hira’? You don’t need to be a hero and wear capes or tights, you are a flawed human being, like everyone else, and that is your greatest weapon. We are flawed heroes, in our own right, with the truth to listen, help, and guide. It’s time to stop using our fists and hateful slurs to put people down and start using our hearts to bring us together in a time of unjust and sin. It’s up to everyone to break free of burden chains that weigh on us and follow the path we believe in.”
“My heart… The path we believe in… But how am I supposed to—”
Before I could get a chance to ask him, my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I saw the number was Agent Newman. My heart leaped in my chest.
“Can I go on my break now?”
My uncle nodded, and I hurried to leave out of the store to meet with Agent Newman.
***
“So, we meet again, as I suspected,” Agent Newman said. We’d agreed to meet up at a Chipotle at the Six Corners.
I rolled my eyes and took my seat across from him at the rectangular table. There weren’t many people in the restaurant, except for a group of teenagers, a family, and an older gentleman reading a book. There was the occasional person that would come in and order their food, then leave.
“... Believe me, I wish it could’ve been any other way. So, should we skip the formalities that you and I are Awakeners?”
Agent Newman smiled.
“You’re quite forward, that would definitely come in handy on the job.”
I furrowed my brows, examining him. He was wearing his usual trench coat and shirt underneath. “You keep saying that, what job?”
“I’m glad you asked, and since we aren’t beating around the bush...”
He sat a briefcase down on the table and opened it. Inside it, he removed several folders .
“As you know, I work for the FBI, but there is another branch attached to it: The Federal Awakeners Society. We are a Bureau that safeguards information on Awakeners, like yourself, and we integrate them into society so they can live peacefully among unsuspecting humans.”
Agent Newman passed me a paper with a brief summary (some information was blacked out) about the association that started in the late 90s. I stared at the paper and looked up at Agent Newman with my jaw partially opened.
“You know, this sounds like some sort of superhero organization or something of Men In Black. I thought that the Awakening and the cult that caused the white light had started in 2009?”
Agent Newman removed something from his briefcase and handed me another classified document with the name: The Dark Ordinance in bold letters.
“The Dark Ordinance started in 1995, kidnapping people and forming a suicide cult that was worthy and willing to give their life to Acedia—
“—Wait, Acedia? Who’s that?” I exclaimed, my tone getting higher and louder as people started leaving the restaurant.
“Acedia is the Sin-Eater, the Great One that will eat the sinful souls of humanity and rid the world of negativity. The cult has been growing for five years—with loyal followers and sacrifices. It was four years later that it wasn’t enough, and the ritual, which you know as the ‘bright white light,’ failed to summon Acedia. In 2009, it affected a small percentage of people in Chicago. The Federal Awakeners Society did what they could and managed to find most people, who were not in comas or dead, and we took them. The other hundred were taken in possession by… ”
“... The Omega Institute,” I finished his sentence. He nodded. “That’s where Alina Mulgrave told me she started the Alexandria Genesis Project a year afterward to save her daughter, Alexandria.”
“And you and your friend are going to take her down? She isn’t the easiest person to reason with or procure information from. I believe she has another federal government protecting
her asset. If you can get evidence of her secret experimentation, we can arrest her from there.”
“What about her ex-husband? I don’t even think he knows what she’s doing. He fired her some time ago, but rehired her. What Alina claims is that it’s a virus caused by prions—she doesn’t believe it has anything to do with a curse.”
Agent Newman chuckled.
“I wouldn’t say Nicodemus Mulgrave is an honest man. I’ve met him, and he may seem like an honorable person with an immense IQ, but he is ruthless.”
I shivered.
“But aside from Nicodemus and the Omega Institute, you said you had a run-in with two members of the Dark Ordinance?” I nodded, remembering their Purge masks and how they disappeared. “Do you think if I showed you pictures, you would be able to recognize them? I know you said they were wearing masks, but you said they had unusual hair color.”
I nodded. “I can try, you have all the information on the Dark Ordinance?”
Agent Newman pulled a few stacks of paper and spread them out before me. They were pictures of kids, teenagers, and young adults.
“Not everything, no. These are missing person’s reports. They help concentrate my ability.”
I raised my brow curiously. “What is your ability?”
“Clairvoyance. I can gain visual information about an object, person, or physical event through means other than my direct line of sight. I’ve been tasked to find Awakeners and those kidnapped by either Omega or The Dark Ordinance.”
“Okay, that’s kind of cool. Have you had any successes? You know, finding Awakeners and those kidnapped?” I asked as I riffled through the papers to see if I could make out the gray-haired and green-haired cult members.
“I’ve had a few, yes. It’s been hard to find those who were missing because I need to have a visual of them and imagine them. Most of those photos are older now, and I can’t imagine people that no longer look the same. I’ve found it quite interesting that you’ve been able to find them so easily. I’m assuming that your capabilities of finding are different?”
I shrugged.
“I see a purple and blue smoke I call the Apathy Current. It doesn’t lead me to Awakeners. It leads me to those who haven’t Awakened yet: the Apathy Users, or Deviants, as Alina is calling them. My friend Helene can’t see it either.”
