Immortal

13. report

Claire is what I call a force to be reckoned with. Even though she was on ground smiling with fierce determination and pride; Sweat gleaming from her forehead and gulping down oxygen in huge mouthfuls. Tables had been pushed and cleared out of the way, guards looked on and mingled with Art forms like siblings. One of them, named Blaze was standing breathing hard and hunched over. He too looked exhausted, but he smiled. A gleam of determination was seen in his eyes. Claire erupted into laughter from her place on the ground and cheered, her cheers were followed by everyone else's.

Claire was one of us, an immortal. Although she was famously given the title of Queen of the Art forms.

She came from absolutely nothing, exposed to cruelty and hatred early on. She had no one to propel her forward. Her family had perished in the jump. Instead of falling into despair after she lost everything. She fought. She was spared no kindness. Everything she had was earned from her own hard work and effort. She was small compared to me, and never took herself too seriously. There wasn't a moment where I hadn't seen her smile. To these Art forms surrounding her, she quickly became known as, Mom. She always had a reason to smile. She saw beauty even in the darkest moments, I admired that strength about her.

Claire encouraged the art forms to express themselves and reach for their greatest potential. She didn't give up on any of them. A trait I'm sure many of them appreciated. She had created a miniature paradise in a small section of land. Still nothing here could be a perfect paradise. I had slipped away from the crowds cheering to get a bit of silence. My blood ran cold when the alarm system blared through all the rooms in the building. The flashing red lights and the broadcasted alerts that played repetitively where heard overhead.

Some of them being a false eerie message of a 'welcome' and the others warning for a lock down in process, and a message for an intruder alert. I was in a standstill as the movement of black masses around me swarmed in a form of organized chaos. A piece of my mind shut down, and I felt my survival instincts kick in slowly. My mind played a trick on me, an illusionary heart rate that I could feel had been pounding in my ears irregularly, it suddenly seemed to slow. Everything felt slower, even my movements. I stopped seeing what was happening in front of me. I had lost track of Izen, and part of me didn't care where he was anymore. Everything went mute.

From the corner of my eye I witnessed the flash of a taser like object coming in my direction. I could feel the heat waves before it made contact, and my body reacted. My arm shot out and yanked the arm holding the taser backwards I heard it clatter to the ground. Everything felt unreal. One small breath and I felt a snap from the arm I held in my hands. I heard a muffled cry. Every sound came through like it was being filtered through a pillow. The art form was slammed into another that came at me from the opposite side. A third threw a knife from a distance which I somehow caught in the mist of the commotion and I threw it back hitting them in the throat. My vision cleared partly and I could see her eyes. They were same color as the one from before. The numbing cracked and I felt a burn. My arm was dripping with blood from a nasty gash. The one at my feet had clipped me with metal spikes.

I removed the spike not feeling the pain just the burn of anger that steadily grew from the pit of my stomach and radiated into the rest of my body. I moved forward and kicked the Art Form in the neck. I could almost see the soul escape their body from the force of the kick. They stumbled backward and didn't have time to react before I lodged the spike into the center of their forehead and realized the name of this one. Cressida.

Her face scrunched up in disappointment, or like she had miscalculated. I saw a spark go off in her eyes and she fell over next to the previous one. My mind didn't register their deaths yet the last one screamed. They had found their footing again and came at me from behind. "Die!" It screamed. I wish I could. I ducked and it missed its impact point in the center of my back. It landed with a hard thud onto the ground next to its friends. I saw emotions of pain, and despair, revenge and hatred, before I kicked its lights out.

Black liquid pooled from its head. I had hit the soft spot on the skull too many times. I had counted, I had only wanted to knock it out. I stepped backwards and leaned against the wall allowing myself soft and shallow slow breaths. The numb feeling was peeling apart. The exposure felt like a heated white hot steel rod being placed on an exposed nerve. The alarms still blared over head. This is all just a drill right? My rational thought finally sinking in from wherever it had disappeared too.

The area I stood in was empty. There was no commotion around me. I rubbed my eyes, trying to find silence in the piercing sounds of the alarms that suddenly deactivated. The lights went back to their normal glow and I could see the bodies at my feet more clearly. I leaned against the wall it being the only thing supporting me upward. Someone near me screamed and I flinched at the sound.

Wait, this was a mistake. I wanted to say but I couldn't find the words to speak. The room was spinning, I couldn't keep my eyes open for much longer. I heard someone calling my name before I collapsed on the hard cool ground.

.......

I dreamt of Alaric. How he spazzed out occasionally at random sounds. The purple fields outside my home that I sometimes hid in. I saw his face, how he reacted at the discovery of new things. The curiosity that consumed his expression. He stared at me in the dream with a straight face. "Sam, wake up." He said. I could see fruit in his hands. I could feel something cold smothering me. It burned, as it grew. I heard him say it again. "Wake up." I jolted into an upright position.

I registered an argument as I blinked at the lighting in the room. "You can't be in here!" I felt like my ears were stuffed with cotton. I saw something flutter from the distance and a flash of blue. Whatever it was darted away from the voice that now sounded distressed. I heard a hiss come from my bed side and a very familiar head of black hair. "Alaric?" I spoke with a dry throat. He turned toward me, his unmistakable blue eyes studying mine and he smiled. There was no way he could be here. He wasn't authorized to be in this building. How did he get in?

"You can't be in this wing!" I heard the voice scream at him again which he responded to with a growl. "He can stay." I spoke up and coughed my throat feeling raw. She registered I was awake and scrambled away without another word toward a monitor.

My mind began to clear from the haze it was in. I registered the impossibility of Alaric being here with me. Although it wasn't because he was standing next to my bed. "How." I forced myself to ask. He perked up and smiled. "Uhh I jumped the fence and followed someone in." He muttered and didn't make eye contact. He didn't think much of his security breach and I wondered how long it had taken someone to notice. How careless. He didn't think of the monitors. The report that would need to be made. It was illogical, but he followed me here.

"Idiot." I mustered and he ducked at the sight of the door of the room opening again. "You're awake." I heard the ring in Claire's tone. She was alone the woman who was in the room was dismissed automatically. I nodded weakly. "Three art forms are dead." She said quizzically. She made it sound like a fact that hadn't been checked off as a fact yet.

I saw blurred flashes of the bodies and closed my eyes moving very little. No she's right, there are three people dead. My mind mentally reminded me of what I'd done. There was a detail missing, why had I killed them? They were attacking you. A response came to me in the tone of my own voice.

"They had weapons." I croaked out to Claire and she nodded there was a sad look in her eyes. "Sometimes that happens, but a report needs to be made. You'll have to stay here longer." She whispered. The risks slowly came to mind and I stared at Alaric who was now standing indifferently to Claire and seemed to deem her non-threatening. Poor judgment of character. My mind took mental note of that fact, on Alaric's behalf.

"You." She said to him. "I don't know how you got in." She stated softly but there was a more threatening tone to her voice. "But what you did was dangerous." He just blinked like he'd been asked a question to explain. "I broke the key pad and changed the wiring and deactivated the DNA scanner." He said it casually. She only stared at him in slight surprise. "The door unlocked after that and opened." I laughed at his casual tone. "Then I walked in." He shrugged.

I had learned something new about my brother. He was a total tech geek. There was always something new, but each new piece made him make a bit more sense. The thoughts surrounding this knowledge humored me. I glanced at him, and he just looked happy to be here.

This meant trouble. For once, neither of us cared.