The Seventh Angel

Chapter 3

I step into the room, and the lights flicker on automatically, making my heartbeat quicken as I descend the softly glowing white stairs. The room feels vast, almost hollow, as if it holds the potential for so much yet remains stark and empty. My eyes sweep the space, a sense of disappointment creeping in. Aside from the towering windows that look out over the turbulent Zephyros Sea of Aethera, the only things present are dormant machines, tangled in a web of long, intricate cables, and a single white table standing isolated in the middle of the room.

"Wh... where are the documents and the machines that create the vaccine?" I glance over my shoulder at my father, who has been walking patiently behind me, his hands clasped behind his back as though he anticipated my reaction.

"You must understand, Chloera," he steps forward, positioning himself in front of me. I look up into his eyes, searching for answers. "This is a secret I have carried longer than you know, and now I must trust you with it. You cannot speak of this to anyone or anything." His voice is calm, but the firmness in his tone unsettles me. I still don't fully grasp what he means, so I stay silent, allowing him to continue.

"Very few of my people are aware of its existence. But recently-just weeks ago-we discovered a disrubtion." He walks toward the solitary white table in the room and presses a button I hadn't noticed before. The room seems to come alive around us, stirring from its dormancy.

As I glance around, confused, my father's voice remains steady. "The dose of the sedatives lately are not enough."

"What... what are you talking about?" I ask, though my attention is drawn to the floor as it begins to open. Something from beneath is rising, and a sudden, intense apprehension grips me. I instinctively step back, dread flooding my senses.

"Father... what is this?" My voice is barely a whisper, uncertain whether I had even spoken aloud. The once silent machines are now humming with energy, screens lighting up with flashing signals and warnings.

"Warning, warning. Abnormal heartbeat detected."

"He, my child... is the cure." My father's voice is steady as the massive, capsule-like machine rises, reaching the ceiling. Inside, a greenish liquid gently ripples, but what shocks me the most is the figure suspended within-unconscious. A man.

A mask covers his face, his eyes closed in a deep sleep. His white hair floats serenely in the liquid, strands brushing his forehead. He stands, held upright by the very cables I had noticed earlier, those same cables feeding into the machine displaying his faint heartbeat.

But the most astonishing thing-he has wings. Huge, white wings, stretched out behind him.

"Oh my god..." I stumble back, hands covering my mouth as a wave of nausea and a sharp headache hit me all at once. It's him! The man from my dreams!

It's him!

"Chloera, I know this is a lot to take in, but bear with me," my father's voice tries to pull me back from the haze clouding my mind, but I can't process a single word he's saying. My gaze is locked on the figure in the capsule-on him. His strong, still form. More cables than I first realized snake from his body, drawing blood.

"We extract his blood, transform it into a medicine that eradicated not only Genevax but all diseases! He is a miracle!" My father approaches the capsule with reverence, admiring the being within as if it were a deity. Perhaps it is. Perhaps he has captured something beyond our understanding, something that could bring unimaginable conflict.

"This is wrong! This is so, so wrong!" I finally find my voice, though it trembles. Despite the horror sinking in, fear grips me too tightly to take a single step closer to the man inside!