Tomb of The Living Shadows

The Purification Team

"Scared-"

The forest suddenly went quite, stains of red making a pool at the center of the clearings. The pile of bodies went paler and paler as the pool of blood got thicker, multiple unrecognizable being that was once human sitting on top of each other. From the corner of her eyes Elora swears that she could see one moving, ever so slowly.

***

"Elora, are you listening?"

Jerked out of her stupor, Elora suddenly noticed the difference in her surroundings. The familiar marble white table and clean, minimalistic office layout is a place where she feels the most at home with... a stark contrast with the scenery she just witnessed and an intense fear she felt. The movement she sees from the corner of her eyes did not scare her because it belongs to the one person she trusted most.

"Sorry, dad... I'm listening," Elora looked up at the tall man in his late 50s, his jet black hair sending an opposite statement. The man, the person she always sees as her father figure, almost had his brows knitted together. She knows, then and there, there's no way for her to lie to this man, not when he gave her that look.

"What was that?" the tremble in his higher pitched voice did not escape her ears. Elora can only focus on her father figure's hand fumbling with his transparent name plate while he rests his lower body on the table... Maximus Griffin - head of spectral military forces.

"I don't know," her thousand yard stares brought the visions and sensations back, "I, uh... I've been having this vivid vision about the dead... and they were moving."

"You mean like zombies? In the movies?"

"No, no... they were out of shape, you can't even call it a human. Those zombies in the movies, they were human shaped."

"Out of shape... you mean like the remains of..."

Elora nodded weakly, confirming that it is in fact, very similar to the chaos she created on her last mission in Galantry. The ones all the higher ups were trying so hard to cover because her father figure did not want the blame to fall on her. There were even rumors that the spectral forces had to resort to their lowest means... by using 'the annihilator's' power, to get rid of all traces of this incident.

"Well, speaking of that... I'm sure you're aware of the consequences on what happened in Galantry, correct?" another nod from Elora followed after a long silence. The older man sighed heavily before he continues, "and I called you here to talk about your removal from crisis intervention team."

Maximus offered a tissue paper when he noticed blood dripping down Elora's chin, which she gently took without saying a word. Elora wipes down the fresh, red liquid and the stain she knows was left on her teeth from this habit of hers, something her former team mates had always warned her not to do on their mission... a habit that cost her the place and the job she had always dreamed of ever since she was little.

"I'm very sorry about this, Lora... but the damage in Galantry-"

The soft shake of her head stops Maximus from saying another word, noting the tremble of her hands despite the small smile that paints her face.

"I know, dad... and I can only get away unscathed because of who you are," Elora breathed deeply, cowering away from her father figure's gaze to stare at hints of raindrops on the window which surrounds this large office tower, "I killed a civilian, those creatures... Alfei told me that a hint of blood would lure them to us, I wasn't paying attention, I was-"

"You were nervous, I know... it was your first big mission, and the blood that drew them in... it was from that, right? Your lip biting habit?"

Elora nodded, letting her head fall and her long hair shielding her away from her father figure's gaze. The silence that follows was deafening, it was as if Maximus is letting the silence hang on purpose, waiting for her to speak and say whatever she wanted, and needed, to say.

"It was that, yeah," Elora wipes a trace of tear away from her cheeks, "everything happened so fast, dad... we were hiding in the outskirts of Galantry, we thought it was a vacant part of the city... we didn't know that there were kids hiding in one of those empty houses! Those creatures just leaped at us so suddenly. I tried not to use my power but it was too much for us to handle, and those kids, they-"

"Needed to be eliminated, because they've seen way too much, Elora. One of them was literally mauled by those creatures, correct? And one of your teammates died protecting those kids... they've seen too much of us, it has to be done."

The sharp tone Maximus used to end his sentence immediately silenced her away. Elora knows that when her father figure uses that tone, it's because there is no room for her to question his method, neither would he elaborate more on the things she needed answers about. All she needed to know was that the incident in Galantry never happened, as far as she's concerned. It was not put on Elora's record, and no one knows what happened to the rest of her teammates that went with her on that mission.

"But I can't let you stay on your team of choice, you know that, right?"

Her mother had told her prior to this meeting that her father figure had requested her immediate removal from the crisis intervention team following the incident, but her mother wasn't sure on which team she would be placed in, just that it would be safe and it's a team that won't require her to use her powers ever again.

Because this power she inherited from her grandfather was not supposed to be seen.

"I know, but which team do you intend to put me-"

A sudden knock on the door stops her sentences mid way. Her father figure allowed the person inside, and came in a person that looks no older than 37 at most, with a kind face and what Elora thought as a "chad-like" jawline.

"Elora, this is Alexander Reagan-"

At the mention of his name Elora knew that her worst nightmare as a child was about to come true. Alexander Reagan is a head of a very famous division... a division her previous teammates always laughed about. A division that seem to be looked down upon by the entire spectral military forces, and a division her father figure always seem to be so disdainful towards.

"I'm the head of Purification team, Elora... so nice to have you on board!"