The Underbelly (First Draft)

Family Reunion

The stairs were not that long, and when I stepped off of the last step I felt my foot connect with a hard stone floor, so much for the illusion of comfort upstairs. I followed the swiftly moving figure of my father down the dark corridor. It felt more like a tunnel though with the curved low ceiling overhead.

He stopped in front of another steel door and I was starting to feel like I was in a bank with the amount of steel vault doors I have seen since I got down here. My father placed his hands on the centre of the door and it was then I realised that there was not a handle on the door and then I heard my father hiss slightly in pain and I saw that a thin trickle of blood was flowing from his palm. He withdrew his palm and I could see a small puncture wound on it. I looked at the door and I could only the smallest hint of blood smeared on the door. My Father looked at me and said, "the door will only open if there is a blood offering and only if it's a special kind of blood. Our kind of blood to be precise." Morbid.

With a whirr the door opened and I was greeted by an assault of noises. There were dozens of kids running around on what must be some sort of obstacle course, inside some sort of amphitheatre. A very strange one considering there were some parts of it that are impossible for normal humans to even have a hope to do, such as a wooden wall that was as sheer as it was high at twenty metres in height. But even as I was looking at it I could see a young girl run up to the wall and jumps half of it and scrambled up the rest of it. I looked at her in amazement. Another was one where there was a stretch of a running track that was solid fire and I could see flickering shapes in it as they ran through and I felt my jaw hang open when I saw three young kids leisurely trot out of it. A place to train people like us indeed.

A couple of young guys saw us and began to flit up the stone steps towards us. It would have taken the average human about a minute to sprint up the steps, they did in less than five seconds. They stopped in front of us and grinned at us cheekily. Father pretended to be mad but it was clear from his manner that he was only messing around with them as he scowled at them, "shouldn't you boys be running more laps or something? I think I could still run laps around you!" I stared at my father as the boys retorted with easy sarcasm, this was a totally different side to the man that I had grown up with. I missed what the young boys actually said but it was quickly apparently that I was the focus of most of their attention. Father grinned and gestured towards me, "lads, what do you think of your oldest sister?"

I took a step back, when my mother decided that she had enough of my father's schemes and left him, she and I had always been alone. There was never ever really anyone in our lives apart from sporadic visits from my father and suddenly I have three brothers in front of me. I did not really believe my father when he said I had dozens of siblings but that might be actually true. This changes everything.

I looked at them intently, trying to discern any common features between us. I could see the odd features such as, an arch in an eyebrow, a quirk in the corner of a lip and one of them had a shade of green that was identical to mine. There were some alien features on their faces though, highlighting the fact that we did not share the same mother.

The three young boys looked at their father expectantly and they must have seen something off in his face because they all narrowed their eyes and adopted defensive positions and glared at me. They suddenly looked much older than they should and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise and I felt my heart beat increase. Father looked at me and smiled, "good, at least living with and being trained by the banal has not totally destroyed your senses. Come, there is someone I want you to meet." I left my little brothers, who instantly calmed down once father spoke and were grinning like children again and began to scamper around like a pack of puppies. I ignored them and followed my father down towards the centre of the amphitheatre.

Like I had noticed before, it was more or less a giant obstacle course but the differences this time was the fact that all the figures that were in constant motion previously were now stationary, with me being the focal point of their attention. I felt my back stiffen in response to their scrutiny, despite the sea of faces looking at me it was instantly apparently that I was the oldest by several years. That gave me some comfort.

Then as I followed father I could see that I was mistaken, there were people dotted amongst the young faces that were around my age if not older. Since I knew that I am the oldest of my father's children, just who were these people? It was quickly obvious that I was going to get my answer soon, as my father was angling for one of these people, a tall dark haired man, who towered over even me. My father gestured back to me, "Chaz I'd like you to meet my eldest daughter Merissa." Chaz's dark eyes brightened and I could see the interest in his face light up. He suddenly jabbed out with his hands at my right shoulder but I twisted my body so that I avoided it. He nodded to himself, "your reflexes are on point, let's see what else you got!"

With a roar he began to lash out with kicks and punches, I had to really stretch myself to avoid them, he was fast but I was faster. Then three other people joined in, it was clear from the matching red uniforms that all of them, including Chaz, were wearing that they were part of some sort of team. The four of them pressed in for the attack and I was hard pressed to defend myself.

Eventually I was growing weary and what had started out as me dodging the attacks, became me blocking them which in turn became landing solid strikes on my body. One of them, a small lithe blonde woman, slithered through my defences and used her nails to rake my face. I tasted blood.

I felt an unfamiliar sense of power course through me but it was not totally alien, I had felt it once before, the night my mother was murdered. I grabbed the woman, my first offensive move of the fight, by the wrist and I could see alarm in her eyes in the shift of my tactics. I focused the power in my core and channelled it down my arms right down to my palms. I felt it slam into her and cause havoc with her nervous system and she began to scream shrilly at the pain. The other three froze before exploding into action, whenever one touched me they crumpled beneath my gift. Chaz was the last one standing, of course. He was in a kneeling position as my hands rested on his shoulder, pain rippling through his body. I looked deep into his dark eyes, "if you or any of your friends ever lay a hand on me again, I will kill you. Do you understand?" Chaz spat at me so I increased the pain intensity, "I asked you a question and I expect an answer." Chaz's eyes began to roll in his head and he moaned a quiet agreement. So I left him fall unconscious. I looked around at all of the shocked faces, "I'm leaving now, I thought that I could get what I wanted by coming here but I don't think that's the case anymore."

I turned to leave but then father spoke, "if you leave Merissa, you'll die." I whirled around in rage, "are you threatening me old man?" My father looked unruffled, "hardly, especially after seeing what you did to them. The people who want you dead are the same people who killed your mother and did this to me." I stopped and asked, "who killed my mother?" My father stretched out his hands, "come with me and I'll explain to you what happened. I'll tell the story of how I was abducted as a child and experimented on and how I escaped and how your mother got wrapped up in all of this and how it led to her death. Come with me and I'll explain everything." He wagged his fingers though and said, "you have to promise that you won't have any more temper tantrums however." With that he turned heel and headed towards the opposite side of the stadium expecting me to follow, after a few moments of deliberation, I did.  

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Unfortunately I am in exam season at the moment so this will not be updated for a couple of weeks but the support that I have received in such a short time has really touched me and I am so appreciative of it! :D

See you on the other side!