Lights

Chapter 14

"How much of this could be considered a break-through?"

"All of it, actually. This is our only lead."

"A dead Paralid ain't exactly anyone's best lead, Lo. Come on, we can do better than this!"

"The dead Paralid isn't our lead," Apollo walked over to the bleeding corpse and reached into the stomach cavity and pulled out a tiny shining object, "this is our lead."

"Is that. . . a medical bullet?"

A tiny smile stole at the corners of Apollo's mouth as a deviant air took its place in the atmosphere among the oxygen. The silver casing glimmering between his fingers as he smiled with satisfaction with his discovery, Apollo hoisted himself up from the floor and pulled out a tiny plastic bag about the size of a large gumball and gingerly placed it inside.

"With this tiny little object," he gestured toward the miniature bag that now dangled between his forefinger and thumb, "we could change the course of history."

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This is all just a waste of time. Why did he seem to be so happy about that casing?

I sat with my head hanging down, nearly grazing my chest with its heaviness, waiting patiently on Apollo to bring out something that could actually be described as truly useful to either of us for true progression. For the past few weeks we had been drawing at straws and the time would come where we had to answer for everything we had done up to this point. Weapon possession, mutrespassing and kidnapping were not crimes taken lightly in Avesty Falls. The four of us were openly aware of the penalties of what we had committed in the few months that had passed us by and were starting to get itchy and restless with worry about how life would change if any of us were caught.

"You okay, Ven - you're looking a little pale there."

Raising my head with fatigue roping it to my chest, I could feel the tug of a heavy weight restricting my freedom to even utter a word to the one person I appreciated more than I did my silence.

"I'm okay, Mordo. Just. . . A little rusty."

"You know, it's funny", moving in a method that appeared to mimic hovering, Mordon made his way to my left side and took to leaning against the examination table, "to me, you seem to be becoming a lot more human."

Scoffing, I rubbed the back of my now chest-length hair and gave it a slight ruffle before resting my warm fingers on the back of my cool neck. I had no response for the statement that wouldn't make me seem less of the 'human' Mordon made me out to be. The only option I had was to let him be a model to the opinion he was desperately trying to father while trying to keep my own immature tongue in check.

"What do you think of Lo's discovery?"

"It's just another gimmick he's using to keep morale up."

"It's not his thing to use fake info; if anything, I'd say there really is something weird about that bullet and if I didn't know any better, I'd think there might be a way to find Kyrin and the other loose Paralids."

"Why Kyrin though? Does Apollo want some kind of reunion? The way I see all of this, he just wants a piece of his family alive and with him."

"Apollo may not look it but he's survived long enough without his family. When he was artificially bred, his dad wanted nothing to do with him at all and kept making excuses to stay away from the house - heck, he was even away from the house for two months because of it. When Apollo's mom finally grew sick and tired, she upped and left. Ever since then, Lo's dad decided to take responsibility for a child that had done nothing but be born in the way that he was. To me, Apollo's just lucky enough to be alive."