The Catalyst

Chapter 21: The Best Laid Plans

Chapter 21: The Best Laid Plans

 His legs were burning with the pain of the exertion, but Cyrus did not slow down as he rounded the final corner and let himself into his dorm room. He had run all the way from the basement lab, up to the main level, through the campus park and back to the dorm building, convinced that Dameon and Gloria must be coming after him. Because he knew that they had seen him...and that murderous look, that shadow that had passed over Dameon's face...

Dameon was clearly angry, and no doubt he had reason to be. That was why, defying all logical reason, Cyrus had turned tail and fled, attracting many odd looks along the way. It was only when he had shut the door to his dorm room and securely locked it that he began to regain any semblance of sanity, and felt safer.

He slumped onto the desk chair, his breaths still coming out in short, sharp bursts as he waited for his heart rate to slow down.

But that was hard. Because in his mind's eye, images from what he had seen were flashing in quick succession. Phaedra's face had been screwed up with pain, she had practically been writhing on the table, and Dameon had smiled. A cold, clinical smile; a satisfied grin. One that suggested that he saw her as some kind of lab rat. At least Gloria had looked worried, had shuddered at the gruesome sight of her younger sister in such pain, but Dameon had been happy to see it, as long as it helped his little tests.

Cyrus groaned, putting his head in his hands. This past week - ever since the Harbingers' rebellion, in fact - he had been watching the madness slowly grow in Dameon's eyes. That shadow, the empty eyes as he had killed those five rebels - Cyrus couldn't understand how he was the only person who realized that his friend was slipping away. And that night in his apartment, when he had finally spoken out about his plans...and Cyrus had heard the mania in his voice as he had convinced and manipulated Gloria...that had been the final straw.

Where had his best friend gone, where had he disappeared off to, to be replaced by this sadist? This Dameon was not the one that he had known for the past four years.

In his mind, he imagined a Dameon who had eyes that swirled with a maniacal darkness; hollowed cheeks and a sly tongue. A Dameon that manipulated people, teasing them with their desires while they danced to his eerie tune. A Dameon that spoke in a cold, clinical voice empty of emotion. An unfamiliar Dameon who was far too similar to the Dameon that Cyrus knew now...

He shuddered. Was he being paranoid and seeing things that were not really there? Or was it possible that this darkness had always been hiding down below, and was only now truly coming to the light?

It didn't matter. What mattered was that Dameon was clearly on the verge of losing his mind, and Cyrus was the only one that realized it. He could not believe that Gloria and Phaedra were willingly playing along with this dangerous game, but he was sure that they were being blinded by their desire to see the end of the divisions - a desire that he himself could not relate to, but he could talk some reason into them regarding that later.

Cyrus sighed, running a hand through his curly hair. Right from the start he had been suspicious of this little project. From what Dameon had told him that night in his apartment, as well as the subsequent argument that he had overheard, there was something that did not quite fit, something about Dameon's plan that did not agree with the darkness in his eyes.

He had to be hiding something; something that was bad enough, he feared it would drive Gloria and Phaedra away from helping him. That had been the only explanation for his gut feeling of mistrust, and that odd, soulless look that appeared in Dameon's eyes whenever he spoke about spreading the Enhancement Solution - something that he was still vague about.