Confusion

Chapter 4

I should probably mention that if any new people are reading this and haven't read the Finding Darkness trilogy, then you guys should probably read that first to get a grasp of what the Light Agents are and stuff :v

Astral woke up in an unfamiliar room. He got up, head throbbing from the memory assault he received. While he nursed his headache, he took a look around the room.

Firstly, he noticed the many photos on the walls of a kid Astral and the 96 child. The 96 was about as dark as Dark Mist, which was a warm black, but not quite midnight black. In most pictures, they seemed to get along well, but according to the snippets of memory, they tended to fight a lot.

The second thing he noticed was the bookshelves covering the walls with some beanbag chairs littering the floor. Did Agent 12 read a lot? Astral got up gingerly to take a look at some of the books. He slid one out of the shelf and flipped through the pages. It was about a fairy tale of some sort; Astral didn't recognize it. Some of the other books covered details of Dark Numbers; Astral took one of those out and flicked over the pages.

The book kept saying about how most Dark Numbers were generally harmless and posed no threat unless cornered, or unless they were after revenge. In between the margins, notes in neat handwriting were scribbled. They looked like little summaries to make sense of the big vocab in the pages.

Astral looked around the room to get his bearings. The walls, or what could be seen of walls through the reddish brown bookshelves, were completely white and had a strange glow to them. The bed itself hovered from the ground and was covered with translucent, white drapes, which were tied to the posts for the time being. The floor was also glowing with some sort of energy, and across from the bed was a door.

Astral's hands immediately flew to the handle and jerked the door open. An empty hallway greeted him. The hall had many other doors; he assumed that those were the rooms for the other Agents considering there were twenty-four in all. He skipped exploring the rooms and immediately made his way down the hall, looking for the building they passed on the way to that horrible machine that caused his massive headache.

The door was easy enough to locate. It wasn't as if anyone was forcing the Agents to stay, so naturally, they could enter and leave as they pleased. Once outside, Astral immediately saw the tall building that housed Dark Mist; he was certain of it. He made his way toward it, his feeling of relief exceeding the effects of his partial off balance when he thought of freeing his love.

However, before he could reach the building, some of the guards blocked his way. Astral skidded to a stop before he collided into them.

"Agent 12," one of them said politely. "Are you feeling well? You've been sleeping for many days."

"F-fine," Astral stammered. "But I'm not Agent 12. I'm-"

"Your name is to be kept classified," the other reminded him. "We were told that the Light Forces made a mistake with you again and took away too much of your memories. Please, refrain from giving your name out to any staff or citizens for your own safety."

"My own safety? What do you mean?"

"Anonymity by name will prevent others with magic abilities from cursing you, as it is the name they need most. The other Agents are not always to be trusted; some of them may want to see you exterminated and give your name to other witches."

Astral nodded. "Thanks, I suppose."

"You're welcome. Now, would you like to see your brother?"

The other one added, "You do remember your brother, yes?"

"My brother?" Astral then decided to play along so that they wouldn't be suspicious, at least until he could find a way to get out of this world. "Oh, yes! I remember him! Please, let me see him."

"We will have to gas him."

"No! I want to see him awake."

"But he might kill yo-"

"And I would like to see him alone."

The two guards exchanged a confused glance. "Agent 12, we cannot do that."

Astral's ear twitched a little. "Why not?" He was beginning to lose his temper.

"Number 96 Black Mist is of the lineage of Hakai, the first 96, so we strongly insist that you do not go in alone, and that Number 96 be gassed and put to sleep."

"No!!!" Astral rammed into them with surprising strength and knocked them both over, pushing past them and speeding toward the building. In his mad, blind race, he sensed out Dark Mist's cage to let him out.

~.~.~

Dark Mist woke up, cramped and sore, to a pounding of his door. Hopeful, he started calling out to see if it was Astral out there, and how could it not be? The energy emitted could belong to him!

But there was something wrong.

He kept hearing shouts and screams of his lover, which worried him greatly. What was going on out there!?

The sounds suddenly stopped. Dark Mist's breath stopped as the door opened slowly and easily. What seemingly took a system to open only took a black figure, carrying a light blue one over his shoulder. Too much light spilled in, so he couldn't see the face, but his voice was unmistakable and eerily familiar.

"Well, well, well," the figure purred. "Someone already took my place. Wonder who it could be." He landed on the ground, a rare occurrence in this world, and walked over with a sassy sway in his hips.

"Who are you and what did you do to Astral!?" Dark Mist exclaimed angrily.

Black Mist knelt down and inspected this Number from head to toe. "So this is what they saw whenever the door opened," he mumbled in disgust. "Anyways, your little friend here was making too much noise." He started hovering again and rudely dropped Astral to the ground in front of Dark Mist. "He was getting annoying, and now that I know you care oh-so deeply about him, then he can just stay here with you! My, isn't that a lovely, touching thing?" He laughed and left, slamming the door closed.