Why did she run? Her face was flushed red with embarrassment as she looked at him through the sweltering shadows that she had found herself succumbing to. She’d looked at him, her eyes spilling with tears, crying silently for his help, and he couldn’t refuse. He felt himself tense and shake with anger as he watched. He was elated when he heard the boy screaming in pain on the floor. The connection between his fist and the pasty faced boy’s nose seemed to feel natural to him, and the boy’s reaction made it feel even better.
Aaron didn’t want to see it, and in his gut he didn’t want to help her. But she couldn’t be blamed for what she was and the countless lives lost at the hands of the race she didn’t yet know she was a part of, yet.
Aaron knew that sooner or later they would come for her and turn her world upside down. She would need to be in the Pit before then.
Below him a writhing, pathetic excuse for a human gets up and he runs in the opposite direction. Clutching his nose he runs to an old door at the back of Aaron assumed was the back door to his mothers shop. Before opening the door the boy looks back at him, anger and hatred twisting and turning in his eyes. His pale blue eyes.
Aaron’s worst fear was realised. There was more than one Skyde in Rhine. He disappeared through the wooden doorway and out of sight and Aaron stood there, in shock. He would have to report this.
“This is Weaver. I need to check in.” He said over his Com. After a while a crackle of static came over the radio followed by his father voice sounding over the Com.
“Where are we Aaron?” his father said impatiently. Things must be getting tougher in the Pit.
“We have a situation.” Aaron said reluctantly, he knew his father would not be pleased to hear this. He just hoped that his father wouldn’t shoot the messenger. “There are Skyde here Sir.”
After a moment of silence he heard an exasperated sigh, “So what we though couldn’t be possible was possible?”
“It would seem so. What do you suggest?” it was true, Aaron had no clue what he was going to do. Especially, when male Skyde were particularly troublesome to subdue and catch, not to mention incredibly rare.
“Well if they are here that would mean that she’s begun to wake up.” His father was a smart man but he enjoyed patronising Aaron whenever he got the chance.
“Yes, that would seem to be the case Sir.” Aaron paused tentatively before adding, “The Skyde I’ve seen is a male, sir.”
“Male?” he couldn’t believe it, Aaron could tell. Then again Aaron couldn’t quite believe it either, and it had happened right in front of him. “I thought we wiped out the males.”
“Obviously not... I think he’s trying to force her change.”
“Force her change? He must know who you are then and knows they’re running out of time. Keep your wits about you Aaron, keep focused and come home safe boy. Goddamn it your mother would turn in her grave if she knew.” Aaron heard his father wince at the thought of his mother. It had been three years since she’d been killed but the wound losing her had caused was still fresh.
“Gotcha.” There was a click on the other end of the line ending the connection, and it left Aaron at a loss.
Female Skyde were entertaining to watch, they were like feral cats fighting over rotting meat. Some had abilities that reminded everyone that they may look human but they weren’t. But they were always emotional after a kill, like they had killed off a part of themselves. Some refused to fight at all, saying that they were human and it was nothing more than a mistake. He once thought that they were lying, acting as if they were distraught thinking that they were smarter than humans. But those cries of terror and pain stayed with him, he hears them when he’s asleep and he sees them when he’d awake. But after they killed so many, he’s learned to ignore the screams of the vermin Skyde.
The male Skyde are vicious, persistent and vile. There had been more than one incident where they had escaped from the Pit’s arena and into the spectator stands. So many people had died in a frenzy of bloodlust that had been fuelled by blind rage. The image of humans being teared limb from limb is another ghost that haunts him.
The males also had better, scarier and more powerful abilities. They could do anything from, pyrokinesis to levitation and this made them even more deadly. So the men were ruthlessly hunted down and killed. It was hard and Aaron lost a lot of friends but soon all of them were wiped out. Well that was obviously wrong otherwise this one wouldn’t have slipped through the net.
“What ya thinking about?” a girl’s voice asked him. He turned around and was confronted by the shadow of a young woman. She was slender and her hair was long that was all he knew as her face and features was shrouded in the darkness created by the high buildings and narrow side paths.
“Excuse me?” Aaron asked, straining his eyes, trying to see who she was.
“I said,” she giggled, “What ya thinking about?” she cocked her head to the side innocently but his instincts told him that she was far from innocent.
“Who are you?” Aaron said accusatorily, he needed to know who she was for his safety.
“A messenger.” She replied.
“A messenger? What’s your message?”
“You take the girl, we take your life.” Her voice was lower and her tone more deadly. There was a sudden gust of wind, dust and debris blew into Aarons face causing him to wince and take his eyes away from the shadowy figure. He looked back and she was gone, leaving Aaron feeling even more lost than before.
