Center of Attention

I've Fallen Back to the End

       "I'm afraid you'll have to stop right there! Otherwise, you will no longer save this world but destroy it from within itself!"
      As Ciarka's voice grew quiet, Smallik had a smile with his aging eyes creasing upwards. "Don't you get it, Ciarka? That's exactly what I plan to do."

       My eyes had once been able to look into the flesh of other beings. It was a great skill I had modified into myself. Well, not me specifically. A doctor had done it, and he made my eyes pure machines. The technology is long outdated anymore. I lost my ability to keep up with it after my wife passed on. Ever since then, though, I've had the problem of crying violently after being in the white lights for too long. I had usually kept my own house dark if I could, and Ogillitiy didn't mind so much as long as his room had been lit by his own means. I tried focusing on the DNA samples from the last similar murder to the one I witnessed on the street, but it was hard. The tears kept getting in the way.
       My mind wasn't focused either. I continued to glance at Sobollum every once in a while as he clacked away at the Brinsit computer, but he dared not look back at me. We were partners in crime, he and I, but that's all we were. We didn't hang out like normal adults would. Our age gap was too significant, and Sobollum and I had different interests that never coincided with each other. Sometimes I felt like the only same thing we had was that we were both male. I once thought he'd enjoy the written word and showed him a few of my son's works, but he merely shrugged it off like it was just a piece of paper. A piece of paper was rare even, and he never even glanced at the words.
       Yes, Sobollum and I had nothing in common, but that didn't stop me from being up close and personal with him. When my eyes would stream tears, I would stop working and bother him until he succumbed to my hoarse voice, and he would listen and pull himself away from the things he had to do. I just didn't know what to say to him today. That whole computer thing... was just a mess I couldn't resolve in my head. I wondered if Sobollum even knew how to read it. The language was just a bunch of scribbles, nothing more, and yet I had lost all emotions when staring into them. I wanted to know what they had said, and I felt my young self rising in my aged body as I thought of it. 
       After a while, I returned to my work. My eyes had stopped producing tears, and I analyzed the blood in the microscope yet again. The same white specs were there inside it. I had guessed it to be little electric chips that came from the Vigva. It was definitely smashed when the first victim had their limbs broken, but I had a hard time believing that a Vigva could be smashed to this degree. It was so tiny. The specks were hard to even stare at without seeing them intertwine with the blood. I pulled away to consider my options.
       "He has to find me first," Sobollum whispered. He hadn't realized his voice was loud enough for me to hear from my distance, but I definitely heard some of the things he was saying. He had a black ear piece dangling slightly from his inner ear. A private conversation? "Consider this a final warning, Xiam." He pulled the ear piece from his ear like he was finished as soon as he started. He turned back. His white hair looked like it hadn't been brushed, and he seemed even paler now that he was away from the call he made. I wanted to pry, but that was an old man's way of saying that I wanted to make sure he wasn't attempting to get anyone hurt.
       "Sobollum," I said. He jumped, dropping his scalpel he seemed to be messing with. "Are you okay?"
       "No. It's been one of those days," he managed to spew. "Asking people to do something for you is difficult enough, but to try and bail after you've already made the agreement is worse."
       "Is that what that call was about? Sorry, I overheard."
       He managed to nod to me. "They're Akton salesman. They promised that they'd have word with their president on the... issues I need to discuss, and they managed to bail on me just as they get to the age-old capital building." He turned to me with anger all over his face. "What's with that? It wasn't some luxury trip. I paid them to go to the capital!"
       Akton salesman were the best of the best in their field. They could sell anything for any price without so much as a heckler attempting to lower their prices. They were cheap, and they were cheap for the right reasons. I had no idea why Sobollum would need Akton salesman to do anything, but I assumed it had to do with the ancient language that stood stagnant on his screen from before. Before I could open my mouth to say anymore, my Vigva began to shine.
       I answered the call with the press of a single button.
       "Hello?" I asked.
       "Yeah, we have a lead." Boss had answered with his gruff voice. "The apartment building right across from yours. Room 1082 on the 17th floor. They say his name is Brokilna Sobe." I stood up from the chair I sat myself in and immediately walked up the stairs. Boss had ended our short call and met me face to face. No one else stood up to greet us.
       "It's a solo mission for now," Boss had said. "You good with that?"
       I didn't reply. I just left with the wave of my hand and passed out the door. My taser was right close to me along with my handgun, and I merely grabbed them to make sure they still clung to me every step of the way. No civilians looked at me. They weren't supposed to, but that didn't stop a few from barking up the wrong tree. I crunched the growing grass in the cracks in the sidewalk underneath my feet. My mind was rushing. It always did when I went out into the action, but I was somehow even more fearful now that the lead was on the killer of those crippled bodies. 
       When my apartment building came into view, I slowed my pace. I could see the waving of my curtains in the wind. Oh. I left the sliding doors open when I left this morning. That didn't particularly matter at the moment, so I turned on my heels to the old, falling apartment building that was right next to mine. I was sure they were going to tear this place down soon, so I tried finding a reason as to why anyone would stay here even knowing that. I had to guess that the elevator didn't work either, but I left that up to my own imagination.
       The front desk on the inside was abandoned, covered in a layer of dust some machinery had left behind. I saw a cleaning machine down the way, and it was stagnant. It seemed to be collecting dust after some neglect. I decided I wasn't going to check in, and walked to the staircase without even a glance to the elevator that was most definitely forgotten in time. The stairs were made purely of wood. It was all rotted through on the rails, and I was afraid it was rotted underneath my feet. However, I continued up them without a fall inside them.
       I knew this place well. Not only was it in the news to be demolished, but it was one of the more ancient buildings in Zitta. Some had told me that it might have existed back in the 2000s, the most ancient time we had records of since the War of Ages. There was once a church here, but that was before religion was banned. That was before I was alive, actually. I was sure that was before my own parents were alive, but I forgot along with the history this place had. 
       I reached the top of the stairs and took a moment to catch my breath. There were too many stairs, not like the stairs that led to my apartment. I was only on the 5th floor, but it still felt like hell getting up here. Damn. I broke a rule. Well, I broke a rule in my head so it didn't matter. I ignored my own judgement and started to slowly pace to the door I was looking for. 1082... 1082... I approached the door, and it was completely broken at the hinges. The door seemed to be hit by an electronic axe or something that could easily break through the metal material. My hand touched the rough edge, and my Vigva immediately began to analyze the material. 
       This happened ten minutes ago.
       I entered the room, but tripped a wire. A loud alarm began to sound throughout the entire building. The room itself flashed that bright red from the Brinsit computer. That wasn't the only weird thing. The words of the ancient language were scrolling up and down the walls like a document was being read faster and faster until it really did look like gibberish. I started to back up, but I felt something cold against my back. Something metal.
       "They sent the cops," the man behind me scoffed.
       I gulped, holding up my hands. "Listen, I didn't know that anyone still lived here."
       "Wait. You're... him. The Center..." Center? Did he know where my son was? "Turn around! I want to look at your disgusting face!"
        I did as he asked without even thinking of anything else. His mouth was covered by a black bandanna, and his eyes were obscured by dark glasses. I couldn't even see who my attacker was.
       "You're the Center, then?" he asked. "A damn Enforcer? Why do we have to be so fucking unlucky?"
       "What do you mean by Center? Do you mean where the children are? You haven't touched my son, have you?" I shakily asked. I was an Enforcer. I was supposed to be stone cold, but the thought of my son being in someone else's hands had me lose my strength. 
       "Oh. So the poor Center doesn't even know what he is?" A grin slid across his face, and I only could tell by the creases. "This makes this even more interesting to do this, then."
       He released the trigger on his gun, shooting me directly in the heart. It didn't take me long to drop dead, falling into the nothingness that was the afterlife. I didn't even see myself bleed or see what my attacker looked like.
       I was dead, and I wouldn't even know what he meant.