Fathom [On Hold]

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen: Flame

"You...were responsible for that?" Jaycen asks incredulously, taking a seat next to Severen. 

"Not just me, obviously. But I had something to do with it, yes," he replies. A small sound of amazement comes from Jaycen's mouth, and his eyes shine with something I've never seen before. He looks...happy. Hopeful. 

"Back the hell up," Saoirse cuts in, "What exactly are you saying?"

"The Lab's intentions are not good. They don't even attempt to keep it a secret. They don't trust me as far as they can throw me, so I don't know much. But I know people who do. A little under a year ago people started getting fed up. Anger and defiance go hand in hand, so naturally, they started planning. Six months ago they came to me, and even I don't know all the logistics of it. They trust very few people, and honestly, I don't blame them. One wrong move and this whole thing could blow up in our faces," Severen explains. 

"So what do you know?" she asks him. 

"I know that recently they've been getting somewhere. My only job is to report back any useful information I hear. The plan took flight a week ago. The whole purpose of it was to destroy the nex, and I'm guessing that creature you saw was how they did it," he says. 

"How the hell did they do it?" Jaycen asks, astonishment still resounding in his voice. Severen just shrugs. 

"Same way the Lab creates the nex, I guess," he says. 

"What?" all three of us ask in unison. My mind goes blank, shock having completely taken over. 

"That's impossible," I say, shaking my head rapidly. "No, you're wrong. They can't...they just can't." 

"They can, and they do," he says, "Listen kid, I don't know why and I don't know how. All I do know is that they control them and make them. I can't even begin to fathom how they work, but that's the way it is. They way it always has been." Anger flares in my chest, burning my insides. All the resentment I have placed upon the nex my whole life now is transferred to the Lab. The ones responsible for the deaths of my parents, my friends, my acquaintances, and countless others. The ones responsible for it all. 

There is no indecisiveness now; I'm out for blood. 

"And you figured this out when?" Jaycen hisses, anger tainting his voice. I'm not sure whether it's directed at Severen or the Lab. Probably both. 

"Calm down, man. Only a month ago, when I got promoted. It's not my fault you weren't around to hear it," he replies defensively. Jaycen huffs and shakes his head in disbelief. Saoirse has taken to pacing back and forth in the small room. 

"I want to meet whoever is in charge of this," I declare to no one in particular.

"You already have. Her name rhymes with die," Jaycen says dryly.

"No, the person in charge of the rebellion or whatever they're calling it." Severen snorts derisively.

 "You've got a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. If they don't trust me, they'll never trust someone like you," he says so condescendingly it makes me want to punch the smirk off his face.

"What, a kid?" He arches an eyebrow at me as if to say what do you think? 

"Too bad. We want in," Saoirse says, coming to stand beside me. Hope replaces the anger burning in my belly. Saoirse and I may only be two people, and kids at that, but stranger things have happened. 

Severen just laughs. "Cute." 

"What crawled up your ass and died?" Jaycen says to him, a disgusted look on his face. "You're beginning to sound like one of them."