The Darkest Souls

The Tenth Chapter: Downfall

Michael and I  entered the lowest floor in the building, the third going underground. "Do you really think it's okay for us to go looking through classified files like this?" I asked cautiously.

"No, Lacey. Of course not. These are real people's lives we could be reading about. Think of your darkest secret, and then imagine a complete stranger finding out about it. Plus all the terrorist information files are here too. It is illegal and shouldn't be done, but who cares about that stuff anymore," Michael replied not very encouragingly. 

"Well, what are we going to look for?" I inquired.

"I don't know. Just whatever looks interesting," Michael muttered.

"Thanks for being specific," I replied sarcastically. 

"Mmm," he agreed, "You're welcome."

I huffed and wandered around the file chest filled room. I ended up going back to near the entrance of the room. I sat down in front of a section and pulled one of the drawers open. 

I ran my fingers along the tops of the papers and sighed. There were seriously way too many of them. I felt like they weren't organized well either which annoyed me. This was supposed to be a state of the ark facility. Not a basement much more cluttered and worse than my desk back at my home.

"Lacey, come here. Put back whatever you're reading," Michael said.

"I didn't take anything yet," I sighed as I stood up. 

I walked on the tile floor, trying not to step on the cracks, as I approached Michael who was standing in a small corner created by the file cabinets. "What'd you want?" I asked.

"I didn't WANT anything. I just thought you might want to look over here. You were looking at invention specifications. For the town. Boring stuff. Over here is all the interesting things about our beloved Country," he replied.

"How do you know without looking at a single file yet?" I asked quite confused at that time.

"Because they've got numbers on each of the sections. Each one stands as a code for a different category. You do keep forgetting I was in State's army don't you? Oh well. I guess you willingly forget because it intimidates you to think that I could kill you right now," Michael replied with a slight smile.

"I highly doubt you could kill me," I boasted playfully.

"Oh really? And why is that?" He questioned thoughtfully.

I let out a short laugh. "Because I could just take over your soul and force you to murder yourself the minute I knew you were coming at me," I answered reasonably.

Michael scratched his head, stumped. "Well... I suppose that's possible. Firstly, I don't think you'd make me kill myself. Secondly, if I were going to kill you- you wouldn't know I WAS coming," he said.

"Nope. You're right. I wouldn't force you to commit suicide, but if you were really trying to kill me I might consider it. As for the whole knowing if you were coming thing, I think you forget that people like us can sense it when others are near bye," I paused for a breath, "My deepest apologies Michael, but I don't think we'll achieve the honor of killing each other any time soon."

"No, I don't suppose we will," he replied quietly. "Well, come on then. Let's choose one and start reading these thing," Michael paused, flipping through the files, "Here we go. This is for the security system and floor plan that is used in the Prison. Washington D.C. really isn't as lovely a place as you might think. Not with hoards of criminals enslaved under the ground of it all. You grab it, you won't be able to look from over my shoulder."