Tales of Monsters and Angels

1.3 Eyes

Did it know it was going to die tomorrow? Did it understand? Did any of those things? Her silent rage came crashing to the surface. Here, living things were made and used only to be thrown away like broken toys by the monsters who made them.

She wished that for once it would take both strawberries.

She stepped back a pace and the thing crept forward. Its skin was black-truly black, not the rich brown some people were. It could have been carved in the black rock that decorated the lobby. Obsidian? That rock, the one like glass and steel combined with the earth's bones.

It reached slowly for the berries, wicked claws instead of fingernails at the ends of too long fingers. It closed its eyes as it picked up the berries.

Lina breathed in...and...out.

One strawberry reappeared on the ledge. The monster's hand hovered over it for second, as though it might change its mind. It opened its eyes, and in the dim light, Lina could just make out that it smelled and ate the one it had kept for itself-always the smaller one or the one with more brown spots. The thing moved deeper in the shadows.

It had given the better strawberry back. It knew she loved them, too. Ritual demanded that she return for the berry. The monster wouldn't eat it, and she couldn't risk the lab assistants finding it.

She reached out her hand. Term. Sched. 15.09.74. 08:00. Signature, signature, signature. She couldn't take it for herself.

"I want you to have it. I'm giving it to you."

The thing stared at her.

"Please," she whispered. She took it in her hand and held it for the monster through the window, her hand and arm just barely fitting in the hole. This was dangerous. The thing could tear her arm off easier than she could open a door. She had heard the stories.

"Take them both this time." Did it know?

It leaned forward, stretching its arm farther than she thought possible. The curve of his claws brushed her palm. His fingers plucked the strawberry and for a brief moment its skin touched hers-as cold and hard as the black stone it resembled.

Its head dipped, eyes closed to smell the strawberry and her hand before she pulled away.

She was running.

She was pelting through the maze of desks, tables, half walls and cages where moaning, beckoning, agonizing monsters vied for her attention.

It understood. It knew what they planned to do tomorrow.

As she reached the cloakroom, she kicked something on the floor: keys and a badge. The badge to swipe for name authorization (high-rankers didn't like to carry chips under their skin, but working drudges didn't have a choice) and e-keys for all the doors in the lab.

She would turn them over to security immediately. She wasn't allowed to have them. Even laying on the floor, they were a problem. She picked them up. Muffled voices joked in the hall outside the lab. The security guard was ribbing the assistants for forgetting something. They all laughed.

She bumped against a desk. She should put the keys and badge down. Pretend she hadn't seen them. Simply a dumb drudge girl-half invisible, hardly human.

She should put the keys down. If she was a security threat, it wasn't just her job she would lose. The voices grew louder.

She was running.

What was she doing? Was she insane? That thing could rip her apart. At the end of the lab, she slowed to a tip-toe. The lights flickered to life and she heard the assistants rummaging around at the front.

The monster in the cage was staring at her, the claws and fingers of one hand crammed through the feeder window.

It knew.

Term. Sched. 15.09.74. 08:00.

She had the keys and the badge.

"Hey, back there," yelled an assistant. Footsteps. "Are you still in here? I dropped something important."

She hurried to the glass and steel door where the reader blinked-a yellow eye winking at her.

"Are you still cleaning?" Closer.

What was she doing? She swiped the badge. Green winking. A quick series of beeps. Flipping the e-key between her fingers, she inched closer to the tiny electronic port to unlock the door if she was going to set the monster free. But she wasn't going to. It would certainly kill her and everyone else. The monster hissed-a low, feral sound.

"Don't move," warned the assistant behind Lina. "Do not unlock the door." He was stalking towards her. He lifted a metal chair with one hand as though he would jab her with the feet or tame her like in the old pictures of circus performers. "Drop the key. I'm calling security and they'll go easy on you if you do as you're told." He slipped his teller from his back pocket, thumbing the interface to activate it. "Put it down."

Taking orders was what she knew how to do best. She had been raised to do as she was told, and besides, she couldn't unleash a monster in the room. She put the key on the floor, her hand lingering above it in regret.

"That's right, now step aside."

*******Thanks for reading this part! Let me know if you have any thoughts so far before I post the last chapter!!!!*********