Fire Star (a Merome story)

{chapter twenty-one} look up to the skies

MITCH'S POV

As I wake up, I feel something pressed against my face. I open my eyes, everything is a blur of white. I hear distant voices,

"It will be done sir."

"Good."

"What shall we do with the other one?"

"Keep him, I have something planned..."

"But sir, he could be dangerous or-"

"Don't question me! He is from two centuries ago. How can he be dangerous or even remotely intelligent."

I sit bolt upright as my breathing quickens. My surroundings are still fuzzy but I can just make out black shapes moving and several bright white lights about 3 metres in front of me.

"Sir, he is awake."

"Let him be. You know what to do."

"Yes sir."

What the crap is going on? Surely this power allows me into other people's minds but I find there is a strong force preventing me. Damn. I get up and survey my surroundings. I am in a blank white room about 3x3m in size, there is a window filling up an entire wall with silhouettes moving around and bright lights flashing.

"What the hell is-" I begin

"Silence." Booms a deep monotone voice. A face appears in the window, it is like no other I have seen before. He has black hair and an extravagant robotic eyepiece on his right eye.

"Where am I? Where's Jerome?!"

"All that won't matter. You will be ours, anomaly."

Anomaly? Two centuries? The man talking looked nothing like I had ever seen before. He had a red branded logo tattooed across his face, but it was luminous, glowing dark.

"Don't even try to use any of your powers, we disabled them years ago."

"Sir, it's time." Another voice commands.

"Bring him in."

He disappears for a few seconds then reappear, carrying something or someone. He comes through an unseeable door in the wall, And then I see who he is carrying, It's Jerome.

For the next few moments our expressions say it all. Shock. Anxiety. Panic. Confusion. I could have saved him.

"I thought you were dead." He says crying. "They told me you were dead." Together, we rush forward, only to be stopped by an invisible force field in the middle of the small room. I can no longer hear his voice but one of a robot.

"Detachment in 3, 2, 1."

A blade of light cuts between us slowly as I recoil in horror.

"NOOOOOOOO" I scream but it is too late.

JEROME'S POV

As the blade of light reaches the floor, I take one last look at the love of my life and fall into a deep trance state. Darkness swirls around me, deleting all the precious memories of my life.

The time I met him.

The time we held each other as we slept.

The time we kissed.

_______________________________

A young man with an old fashioned red and black hoodie with brown hair lays on the floor of the glass cube. All I can do is feel sorry for him, thousands of people watching him like he's some kind of entertainment. Most citizens watch this sort of thing, looking at people being separated from their loved ones. Today it was 2 captives, must have been rebels, a rare occasion for the audience. Of course, the government will take them for their own and use what's left of them for purposes unknown. Nobody cares. They have lives to live and family to care for. But I feel like I have known the guy in the glass cube all my life, but that could never be true.

As I look into his tortured face, his deep brown eyes look directly back at me as they widen. He mouths something. The more I stare at him the less I recognise him. Better to move on than stand here all day.