Clair de Lune

28. Stalemate

My breath caught in my chest as I bolted upright, the images of a nightmare flashing behind my eyes. Concrete walls met my gaze and I lowered my hand, my breathing slowing down and returning to normal. I huffed and lowered my head, taking a few looks around me to see who was awake and who was not.

Only Lily and Murmur remained in bed, everyone else having already gone onto their daily tasks. I rolled out of the blankets and pulled off my clothes, feeling the need to change into something a little more breathable. A pair of shorts and a crop top worked perfectly; I went on to tying my hair back before walking out to see everyone else. Marshall was cooking again, this time it was eggs and hash browns. Thamyris was in the piano room playing Moonlight Sonata while both Osiris and Necro were eating at the table. I grabbed a plate and took a seat next to them, hungrily gobbling down everything on my plate. I hadn't eaten anything last night, so I was probably hungrier than most.

"So, Lily took your clothing and left you in the lake?" Osiris asked, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Maybe."

"It honestly wasn't even that bad until night," Necro added, "it was nice and warm, but all of that was gone the moment the sun went down."

"That doesn't surprise me, temperature drops around here get pretty drastic at night." Marshall placed plates of food down in the empty spots, just as Murmur and Lily came walking out.

"Good morning you little brat." I glared playfully at Lily, who's face lit up in a grin as she took her seat.

"Good, now that everyone's here, I can tell you what I saw in town last night." Marshall continued.

"Well, what'd you see?" Necro asked.

"I wouldn't suppose any of you have heard of the Akira incident, have you?"

Both Osiris and I froze completely. I looked up and saw her eyes twitch towards me before looking back over at Marshall. We both knew what it was and I was curious as to what it had to do with whatever he found in town.

"What about it?" I asked.

"After the Akira incident with Seth, new rules and regulations were put into place within the PASCI corporation. Not only that, but a group of agents who were close friends with Kaage Akira disappeared from the facility and were never recovered."

"Not to be rude, but," Murmur interjected, "what happened during the Akira incident?"

"Seth Mars gained control of all spiritual entities within the confines of the building," Thamyris spoke up, "he ordered us to attack all agents and cause as much general chaos as possible. Kaage Akira was a subject-turned-agent who was the only one to get past all the rampaging spirits and take down Seth. The spirits turned on him and tore him to pieces."

"Due to this incident, a number of agents agreed that they didn't want to be a part of what the agency stood for anymore," Marshall pulled a photograph out of his pocket and placed it on the table for everyone to see. A man was shown there, standing in the light of a shop window with a cellphone to the side of this head. Covering his face was a mask with the bottom half of a skull painted on, "and it seems as if they went and created their own agency."

"So, what? There's two groups now trying to collect us?" I snapped.

"No. From what I could tell, these people are workin' alongside people like us and trying to take down the PASCI agency."

"Are you saying you think we should team up with them?" Necro asked.

"I'm not sayin' that necessarily, but I am sayin' we should alert them to our presence outside of the compound," Marshall explained, "if they're plannin' something, we could be good backup, and the other way around goes for the same. We can do a lot of damage by ourselves, but we could do even more with them by our side."