MIST: AFTER THE APOCALYPSE

Chapter Seventeen * Dr Kayden *

* Dr Kayden *

Since the incident with the sea monster, Captain Flame's people mourned his and his crew's death with fearful hearts. The announcement of Captain Aradag Spectro being wanted for murdering Count Horton, and possibly Captain Flame, added to their burdens. The news spread like wildfire throughout the Vicinities.

Dr. Kayden read through the news with haste. The story he read about the wanted captain reminded him of his own; stranded in the snow as a child after escaping from a madman's lair, being rescued and living comfortably with a mother...

Speaking of his mother, the life expectancy he estimated for her is dwindling. Sarah had a strange illness, one found only in Dr. Kayden's journals and research, one that chipped at her life until she was bedridden.

Kayden was running out of money for his experiments. When the last of his savings were gone, he resorted to opening the letter he stashed away in his closet, one that he was afraid of touching.

They had the cure to Sarah's condition! Dr. Kayden blinked. The catch was that he had to perform some jobs for the sender. They claimed they would imbue the doctor with the abilities needed to do them. He frowned at the implications, but after weighing the pros and cons in his mind, he decided to follow the instructions in the letter. He breathed, whispered aloud his compliance, and closed his eyes.

Once he opened them, a strange puff of smoke escaped the wrinkled paper in his palm, taking the doctor's consciousness with it as it floated away.

He woke up to find himself surrounded by night-like darkness.

"Dr Kayden, you have agreed at last."

"What...?" Dr. Kayden shook his head. "Where am I? What happened to my house?"

"Far from home," the shaded figure replied, their voice echoing around the petrified doctor. "From this point on, you will take care of some loose ends for us."

Dr. Kayden recollected himself and put on an emotionless mask. "Can I trust that you have the cure?"

"You have no choice but to. You will be briefed on your first assignment tomorrow night. Good luck!"

With a sinister giggle, the figure vanished and the world collapsed onto the doctor. When he came to, Dr. Kayden threw the letter away and went to check on his step-mother.

The following night, he set out to the location enclosed in the letter he received that morning. He arrived after a three-hour run at the Vicinity prison, and more so, the maximum security wing. Dr. Kayden realized he had to visualize his childhood to make it out alive.

One by one, the armed guards fell to the ground. The doctor's movements were concealed by the mist of the winter night, until a lantern was thrown to his feet. From then, he found himself cornered by weapons of all ranges.

Or that would have been the case, were it not for his quick, last-minute escape.

So this is the ability that freak spoke of, the doctor thought. He was one with the shadows, moved quickly and silently without alerting a soul. He broke into the prison in the same fashion; once he sneaked into the cell that contained his target, he made quick work of the inmate and shuffled back outside.

The next morning, another letter was sent with money but no cure. He was grateful for the money, but at what cost? At the expense of people who could be innocent? People who had lives, families, loved ones to care for?

Dr. Kayden's next target was his breaking point. He crept up behind the woman, averting his eyes from her head, which he was about to slice off. By chance, she happened to be holding a mirror. The face that stared back at him was one he knew well.

She was the little girl that used to tuck him in after the horrendous torture, who snuck him food beneath the lab workers' noses. He remembered loving her as a child.

Kayden couldn't face her after all this time and tell her that he was about to kill her like the hundreds before her.

The doctor rushed back home and looked at himself in the mirror. "Who am I? What did I do to myself? I became an animal! Killing all these people for the sake of someone I love... This is wrong!"

He would focus on his research and his research alone. No more.

The next letter came with a bottle of fluid and the label "cure" on it.

Kayden rushed to Sarah and fed her the contents. Her eyes focused on his, and her hands reached for his face. The old woman smiled at her adopted son, who would have broken down if not for the joy in her expression. They talked for hours to make up for the years lost to illness, but come sunrise and the middle-aged doctor gasps at his mother's sickly state.

"Finish your last mission for the real cure."

He wanted to burn that letter and the demon who wrote it. Instead, he ignored it and its successors that took on a threatening tone. Dr. Kayden would not take any more lives in vain. Besides, after long nights in his lab, he was able to synthesize a full batch using a sample from the bottle.

Serum in hand, Dr. Kayden returned home only to find his door ajar. No, she would be alright. Perhaps the earlier dose's effect was delayed?

The sight of blood on the walls rekindled a fury he had long forgotten.

Silent, Kayden closed her eyelids whilst fighting off his tears. He should avenge her. But how would he avenge her? He did not know the true identity of the people he worked for. He had no means of bringing Sarah the justice she deserved.

He would start by repenting for the sins he committed. As he was preparing to take his own life, a shadow in the shape of a human emerged from the drawn curtains and handed him a letter.

"Consider me a member."