The Other Side

Chapter 11- In Progress

About ten minutes later, Landon was pulling up to a large nondescript concrete building with huge windows on the front. There were only two other cars in the parking lot, which I assumed belonged to the researchers that Landon had on my case. We got out of the car and Landon grabbed my wrist, almost forcefully pulling me towards the front doors. He was walking too fast, it was difficult to keep up especially considering my ankle still throbbed a bit with each step.

"Marion?" Landon called out as we entered a hallway with no windows and one large door at the end.

"Landon, you're going to want to see this," Marion's voice responded from inside the doorway.

The lab was clean and pristine, all the lights were the same color and all of the surfaces were bright and clean and neutral. Everything looked as though it was where it should be. Almost everything. Marion and another person were standing by a spot on the counter that looked like it had been scorched by flames. There was melted plastic and blackened glass lying about, and Marion was holding a fire extinguisher.

"What happened?" Landon asked, rushing forward to make sure Marion and her assistant were okay. "What caught fire?"

Marion sighed and put the fire extinguisher on the counter. "He did," she said as she motioned loosely towards me. "The closer you got to the lab, the more and more the sample began to heat up. I'm assuming it caught fire right as you two pulled in. Blue flames."

"It was in a de-oxygenated chamber," the assistant said, wringing his tanned hands together a little nervously. "I'm not sure if you know this, but fire needs oxygen to survive."

"Yes Ravi, we know that." Marion sounded exhausted. "What we don't know is how the hell something with no oxygen caught fire in that chamber. And melted the sides of it too. It shouldn't have been able to get that hot. It breaks all kinds of natural laws."

"What happened to the sample?" Landon asked. I'd never seen him so frantic looking.

"It burned up completely. Once we extinguished the fire, the sample was gone, and just the empty glass remained. Scorched to hell of course." Marion picked up the glass beaker, twirling it around in her grip. "That was the only sample we had."

We all sat in silence for a few moments. My mind was racing, as I'm sure Landon's was too. You learned that fire needed oxygen to survive in elementary school, it was a basic law of natural science that had never been broken before. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. "Doesn't blood have oxygen in it?"

The other three looked up at me and then at each other for a second. "Not enough for the blaze we saw," Marion replied. "But I guess we're working with Demons here, there is always going to be an unknown factor at play."

"Maybe Demons have like a... some sort of mixture of elements in their magic or..." Ravi ran a hand exasperatedly through his hair. "Honestly I have not a clue. This isn't something we've ever encountered before."

"Well, we know it was Alex because the flame was blue." Landon sat down heavily on one of the stools by the counter. "Blue flames are what I saw when he was attacked. Unmistakably his. Unlike anything I've seen."

We all sat quietly for another little while. Finally, Marion broke the silence. "We're not going to get anywhere by simply sitting here and not talking to one another." She turned to me. "You, come here. I'm going to get more samples from you, run some tests. Ravi, get the blood draw kit."

Ravi nodded and scurried off. I made my way over to the chair next to Marion and sat down. "I'm sorry... for all of this." I said quietly. "I didn't mean to cause this much trouble."

Marion glanced at me, her hazel eyes narrowed a bit. "The only reason you should apologize is if you intentionally set my sample on fire. Is that what you did?"

"No, but-"

"No buts." She took the kit from Ravi's hands as he came back just then. "This is nowhere near your fault kid."

I nodded and rolled my sleeve up for her to draw my blood. I looked away as she inserted the needle, trying not to let on that I absolutely despised needles. Right now wasn't the time to make a big fuss over something like that.

Landon had been quiet most of the time we'd been here, and I glanced over at him to see he was looking down at his phone, brows furrowed and lips in a tight line. I felt bad for causing him so much stress. He suddenly looked up and our eyes met for just a moment before I looked back down again, embarrassed that I had been staring.

"Lamont is here, I'll go get him." Landon got up and made his way towards the doorway.

Another thing to be nervous about: meeting the first prince of my country. Landon had said that Lamont was laid back and not at all like his father or Lancius, but I couldn't help but feel a lump in my throat and a small knot in my stomach.

"All done drawing the blood, you can relax now." Ravi's face appeared in front of mine, a genuine warm smile on his lips. He watched as Marion took the vials to another station, and then quietly whispered "I don't like needles either," with a wink.

That made my nerves dissipate some. Landon seemed to keep really wonderful people around him, Marion and Ravi included.

The lab doors opened again and Landon walked inside, a taller figure following behind him. That must be Lamont. I steeled my nerves and sat up a little straighter. I had to stop slouching all the time. Especially in the presence of royalty.

"Hi Marion, Ravi." Lamont's voice was deep and smooth. "Hi, you," he said to me as he got closer. "It's nice to finally actually meet you." He held his hand out and I took it, a little in awe. "Nice to put a face to the, er, blood samples."

He smiled and his entire face lit up. He looked like an older, taller Landon, but with freckles and much darker brown hair that was slightly curly. They shared the same green eyes and golden complexion. Was this a family of models or something? Beauty certainly seemed to be genetic between at least the two of them.

"H-hi," my voice cracked a little, and I took his hand to shake it. Hopefully I wasn't blushing.