Antiquities: A Short Story Collection

Pseudo

Siren's blared on anther level of the building. I gathered my things to leave my office. The edge on my mood was sharp. The company was in my name. My research facility. And yet I didn't know a damn thing. I felt like the face of something I didn't recognize. My partner, Jack Michigan, led the industry in the science of evolution, but here he was managing my finances, my schedule, my company. 

I stuffed the last notebook into my satchel and locked my office, a practice I'd taken up in recent months after one of my files had gone 'missing'. I caught Jack on my way down the stairs. His sharp features were stretched into a distraught expression. Or maybe he always looked like that. Running my company must hit all his stress buttons.

"Jack, for fuck sake, what the hell are those sirens?" I inquired of my partner. Jack glanced at me and rolled his eyes. My jaw hitched and I resisted a the urge to narrow my eyes.

"Just a minor problem in the lab. I'm taking care of it." He passed me and I caught a whiff of antiseptic. I let out a breath. Jack and I had never been friends, but we got along well enough before all this business shit. Before we were top of the line. I don't if the money changed him or if our goals were never truly aligned, but since we'd 'made it', I was nothing more than a figurehead. 

I hadn't personally been in the lab since they build it. Jack had refused me clearance on the basis of safety. Fat fucking chance. Jack never gave me solid a reason to doubt our scientists aside from my petty  grievances and suspicions. 

We'd made significant medical break-throughs in our field. We knew humans were evolving, but the environmental implications of those changed were still a complete mystery. People with the kind of mutations we needed to study were problematic to source and even more so to study ethically. I was nearly out the door when the incessant blaring sirens stopped.

 I felt more disconnected from this business than ever. The control was slipping through my fingers. It sent aches through my neck and I knew I'd been tensing all day. Rain came down down like thunder.

"Find it!" Jack's voice was distant and sounded like silverware on glass. I'd already punched out. I straightened my jacket, and regretted not bringing an umbrella. I had a young, unpredictable younger brother to get home to. It was optimistic to assume he was quietly doing his homework.

With our parents out of the picture, and a demanding career, I couldn't give him the attention that his therapist told me he needed. I sighed and pushed a strand of soggy hair out of my eye. I stepped out from under the overhang, not bothering to shield myself from the pelting rain. A little water was the least of my worries. 

I started down the deserted sidewalk and narrowly avoided being drenched by a passing car. I scoffed, some small piece of luck must still be on my side. Thunder crashed overhead and I jumped, feeling little foolish. My clothes stick to me already.

I ran a hand over my face and a small cry stopped me in my tracks. My eyes wandered but there was no one around.  Another cry came to me in the near dark when I started walking again. It didn't quite sound like an animal.

"Hello?" I felt stupid, soaking wet and calling out in the dark. It was the set up to a horror film for sure. The crying continued. "Is there someone there?" I peeked around the corner to the mouth of an ally. It gave me a prickly feeling, like I was about to get mugged. Among the trash and dumpsters, I could make out a minute form. Too small to be any thug I've ever seen.

"Hello?" The figure shrank away from my voice. I inched closer until I stood before a the hopeless figure of a child. I leaned closer to make out his features in the dark, pouring rain. A boy raised his head. His eyes were barely open. They were stark as embers. He seemed to look through me. I'd never seen his kind before, except the diagrams hanging in Jack's office.