Whisper

Chapter 14

Clarise was just staring at herself in the mirror as Mateo threw away the long locks of hair he just chopped off. Nearly 2 feet in length, along with a few inches of trimming he did. 

This was definitely one of the worst haircuts Clarise had ever had, but it felt liberating. The back of her head still had some length, but only reached to about halfway down her neck, and the front and sides were trimmed to frame her head and ears. They were still pretty long compared to the back, going over his brows and part of her ears. 

What style would you call this? 

A wolf haircut. 

It was interesting to say the least, and looked nothing like Mateo's hair. It felt personally tailored to her. She couldn't stop rubbing the back of her neck, it was strange to have little hair covering that area. 

"Do you like it? Sorry if I screwed it up," Mateo was admiring his work from behind her. It was even all around her head, or at least it was even in his mind. It really wasn't. He was nervous for her reaction. He didn't mean to cut it that short, but the more he screwed up the shorter and shorter it became. 

She turned to him, sprouting the brightest smile she could conjure. 

I love it. 

He let out a sigh of relief, observing his work one last time before going back to sweep up the remains of her hair. 

The shorter hair really suited her. It made her look a bit more mature, and a bit more livelier. Like her hair was weighing down on her since she began to live in the facility, now she was freed. 

"I'm going to clean myself up and then go pick up some food for the two of us," Mateo put both hands on his hips, satisfied with his work. "Got any requests?" 

She shook her head, yawning loudly now that everything was off her shoulders. 

"You can go sleep on my bed. I'll wake you when I'm back." He gestured to his room, cursing at himself when he realized the state of it. It looked like a tornado when through it. 

Thank you.

Yawning again she stumbled into his room, not even glancing at the mess. She pulled back the covers and laid onto the mattress, snuggling into the pillow that felt like it had never been used. She was exhausted after today, and now that she finally shut her eyes to rest she was out like a light in seconds.

Mateo was used to just crashing on his couch, his bedroom was just a massive closet for tossed around clothing. Just before he was going to head out, he checked on her, noticing she didn't even bothering pulling the covers over her, so he quickly shifted them over her thin shoulders. 

Noting that he should pick her up some new clothes he quickly checked his watch, only about 5pm, so some clothing stores should be open. 

Just as he was descending the elevator his phone rang again, Harrison once more. 

"Mateo," Mateo answered. 

"Mateo, where are you?" Harrison sounded normal now, not running around like earlier. 

"At my place, why?" 

"You brought the Project home with you?! Are you insane?!" 

Mateo had to move his phone away from his ear from how loud he was, "Calm down, she's harmless." 

"She. Is. A. Project. Kept at the facility for a reason." Harrison spat out every word like just thinking about her was disgusting. "You better know what you're doing." 

"I do, trust me." Mateo was a bit ticked off at his attitude, but Harrison was his superior. 

"Fine," Harrison sighed, "Anyways the Heads want you to bring her to the Keaton building in the downtown area of Felton City. Your place is about an hour away right?" 

"Yeah, pretty sure," Mateo smiled at another tenant who walked into the elevator just as he walked out, "Is that all?" 

"The other projects have yet to be located, Project Magma fried all the means of locating them so be cautious. We have reason to believe they are trying to track down your Project." 

Looking back at the building, Mateo considered going back and having Clarise tag along with him, but she should stay off her feet, at least until he could grab her a pair of shoes. Does he even know her shoe size? Her file said she's a size 7. 

"Anyways, when you two arrive at Keaton, she'll be relocated to another facility, you are going to come with us to our next assignment, BEYOND needs our services elsewhere." Harrison didn't even let Mateo respond before hanging up. 

Slightly disappointed, Mateo held mixed emotions. What did he expect? That he'd stick around with Clarise for just a bit longer? She as intriguing - that's for sure - but she wasn't a normal person, and that made her dangerous. 

Meanwhile Clarise was deep asleep when someone entered the apartment, walking straight to Mateo's bedroom and opening the door. Whoever it was just stared at her for a whole minute before fully entering the bedroom. 

Clarise had woken up by then, basically sensing a new presence within the vicinity. Her adrenaline was spiking up, now fully awake after getting only about 5 minutes of rest. 

Who is it? 

Peter Westley Trenton. 

Why is he here? 

He's intending to take me.  

Why? 

He saw Mateo and me enter the building from the parking garage, then saw Mateo leaving the building, thus saw an opportunity to capture me and turn me into the  ARC. 

What is the ARC? 

Abnormal Research and Containment, they too take those with 'gifts' and research them. 

Can I escape this? 

Yes. 

How? 

Peter approached cautiously, knowing how dangerous Projects could be. He was incredibly underprepared as well, only armed with an automatic handgun and a knife. He got lucky tonight, just about to head out after he got a call that Facility 0601 had been destroyed, only to catch sight of a man and a woman, both wearing BEYOND-clothing. The woman wearing the uniform meant for projects. 

His team and him had been assigned to monitor Facility 0601 and find out what kind of projects they had, but now running into the man - Mateo - who was on his way out, it wasn't hard to figure out what apartment he had and now Peter had a once in a lifetime opportunity. He didn't think that a employee of BEYOND would live in the exact same apartment complex as him, but he still had the foresight to skim through the tenants of this 50+ room complex.

To make things even better, the woman was asleep, so her capture should be easy. He had already called for an extraction team, so this should be and one and done job.