I passed at least five Directs on my way to the Hall for breakfast. I pulled my semi-bulky coat tighter around my body, knowing that I was being watched. The long metal corridors were staring with steely eyes, every step, every breath. I stopped walking, looking out of the window, they were sparse, the Government doesn't want us to know what happened. I took in what I was seeing. The view of a ruined Earth taking my breath away every time; pure, scorched, black. I couldn't look anymore knowing that it could've been avoided. I felt someone grab my arm, hard. I was thrown into the crowd by a Direct who continued to herd the rest of the people in the direction of the Hall.
We live in a world consumed by chaos, light filters through irradiated clouds and the Directs run society. It's as though humanity has been culled into cattle.
With my brain on autopilot, I walked all the way back to my room. I took my reflection in as my shower heated up. The mirror fogged over my medium lips, chocolate eyes, broad face, and dark, wavy, short hair sticking up in places and laying down in others that made it look more like a bird's nest than hair. I stood staring at myself until my face became too muted to recognize. Sometimes, I want to know more about the person in the mirror; a ghost of what could've been or perhaps what has already been. I climbed into the shower, knowing that I'd probably get in trouble for the wasted water, rushing and then trickling.
I hear a knock on my door. Looking up at my alarm clock, the red numbers burned my eyes. 12:27 AM. The person outside of my door started to get impatient. The knocks became hurried, but not louder. I reluctantly hauled myself out of bed, my feet feeling the all too familiar bite of cold. I was half awake, most likely looking more like a deranged scientist than an eighteen year old boy. As I approached my door, an unsettling feeling festered in the pit of my stomach. My breath started to quicken. Come on Clayton this is ridiculous, nothing's going to happen. I tried telling myself. It didn't help. I gripped my door handle, not half asleep anymore. Standing there, contemplating whether to open the door or not, I heard receding footsteps. With a quizzical expression, I jerked open the heavy metal and searched the empty hallway. Although predisposed that it would be vacant and expecting the eerily empty feeling that graveyards leave you with, the chill that barreled down my spine took me by surprise. I looked down, about to turn back into my room when I saw it.
A tattered, brown, leather journal lay at my feet. There was a tree design burned into the cover. I bent down and felt the indentations of the tree, the flaking back cover. Encapsulated with the journal, I didn't notice the note that slipped out from the middle of the pages. When I finally spotted the note and picked it up I remembered the cameras, the eyes, everywhere; never letting anybody have freedoms.
Once in my room, I unfolded the ripped, half paper, creased at the middle. Keep the journal hidden, meet in the Hall at breakfast by the East door. Do not get caught. After processing the command, I was too excited to sleep, I already knew that. Sitting at my wooden desk with my small lamp on, I took the journal into my hands and flipped through the yellowed pages. The handwriting was neat and loopy. Towards the end the words looked hurried and the letters were scratched deeper into the paper. Whoever wrote this desired something, deeply. I started with the first page. I read for a few hours when my eyes started to feel tired, eyelids drooping, and brain jaded.
I was walking down the hall to the Women's Sector. Many of the rectangular lights lining the hallways were out, casting an eerie glow throughout the ship. My combat boots smacking down on the steel, providing a comforting rhythm to fight back the ominous feeling pressing down on the air in all directions. I started to jog, there was something breathing down my neck, suffocating me. I stopped abruptly, spinning in a circle trying to locate the source of the apocalyptic atmosphere around me. My mind started spinning, I could feel the unworldly infect me, streaming through my veins to my brain. What are you doing to me?! A piercing pain blistered my skull, a ringing started in my ears and I immediately pulled my hands to the sides of my head but to no avail. When I opened my eyes, it looked like there was a dark shadow poisoning the space around them. The person was holding something in their hands, it was vaguely familiar. Journal...it was the leather journal. The whining intensified, it was too much. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness. I caught a small glimpse of the shadow smiling with pointed teeth before I was falling, awaiting me was the cold, hard, steel with an extra dose of pain just for me.
I awoke with a jump in a cold sweat, my breathing deep. I picked my neck up from off my arms and stretched before standing up. I changed out of my pajamas and into the gray long sleeved shirt and army green cargo pants we were forced to wear. I glanced across my room to my combat boots, feeling a little uneasy as vivid memories of the nightmare I had last night came rushing back. After I got my boots on, I walked out of my room towards the Hall.
I had read a few journal entries. They seemed to be written by a fairly young girl. She kept mentioning a disease called "The Flu"? There was no explanation of the symptoms or consequences other than it was deadly. As I neared the Hall, as confused as ever, an anxious feeling settled in my gut and I could feel my face get hot. Once inside of the Hall, I glanced towards the East door to see nobody standing there. I decided to get food and sat in my regular seat after I got out of the breakfast line. Bouncing my leg and tapping my fingers, I awaited someone to walk to the door.
"Hey Clayton, are you okay?" My best friend, Ada, asked as she set down her tray and swung her leg over the bench.
"Yeah, I'm just stressed about finals week," I didn't expect Ada to believe me, though. She could always tell when I'm lying.
"Me too, I think I'm going to fail the..." Her voice droned on but my worries were too much to keep listening. I looked up at the door, yet again, the only difference was there was a woman there, she seemed about my age, staring right at me. We made eye contact and she made a slight movement with her hand; it was subtle enough that no Directs would notice.
"Hey, Ada I think I left my wristband in my room," Voicing the first excuse that came to mind. I rose from my seat and took long strides over to the woman. I could feel Ada's eyes on me, she suspected something. I discreetly brushed the girl's hand as I passed and I heard her footsteps fall in behind mine.
As soon as we were out of sight and hearing of any Directs and the other passengers in the Hall, I took in her appearance. Short black hair, a predominantly asian face, beautiful brown eyes, and cute little freckles sparsely dotting her face.
"So, I'm assuming you got my delivery then?"
"Yeah, I did and I'm really quite confused," She looked out of the window, a line of angst etched into her forehead just as one of confusion appeared on mine.
"Why me? Why did you give me the journal?"
"You were selected," She explained.
"Wait, selected? How? Why?"
"I can't answer that question yet, you aren't ready. Don't worry, though. I went through the same thing," The words coming out of her mouth felt foreign. This can't be real can it? "Listen, we have to go. I have a few people on the inside who blacked out the security cameras, but only for a little bit."
"Wait, what's your name?"
"I'm Champei," She said as she walked towards the Hall. "Wait a few minutes before you walk in so nobody suspects anything. Goodbye, Clayton."
"Bye, Champei," I watched her walk through the doors to the Hall and stared out of the window, straight at the planet that now provoked so many questions.
I walked back into the Hall and slid into my seat beside Ada. An aporetic expression pulling my eyebrows together. Ada turned to me as I sat down and gave me a questioning look. I nodded to her.
"I'll explain later." She took this without question and was probably picking out the best time to make me follow through with this promise. Today was a Saturday which meant all we had to do was our chores and start our homework.
Ada and I left after we were released from breakfast and walked to the Recreation Room which just had a few pool tables, places to hang out, and gaming systems. We took our usual spot in the corner of the room opposite of the door. We talked about mundane things as I tiptoed around the conversation that took place. She seemed annoyed, though and quickly changed the subject to something much more interesting to her.
"So, what happened?" Ada asked, already bombarding me with questions, which is not unusual for Ada.
I told her what happened last night, but left out the dream, it felt like something better kept private. I explained what was written in the journal and about the note. Ada was already planning out what to do next, you could always tell what Ada was thinking, when I finally got to what Champei said about me being chosen.
"Wait, 'chosen'?"
"Yeah, this is crazy, right? I can't just get thrown into this whole situation against my will?" My voice failed at the end and took on a skeptic edge because maybe I had no choice.
"I don't know, dude, this is pretty crazy," Ada was just finishing her sentence when Champei walked through the door, an expression of urgency leaving a glint in her eyes. Her gaze flew around the room before settling on Ada and I.
"We need to go, now!" She said whispering urgently, which left us with no choice but to follow her.
"Where are we going?"
"There's no time to explain, you guys have ten minutes to gather your belongings from your rooms, then meet up at the East door where we were earlier today."
I jogged to my room and found an old duffel bag buried in the bottom of my closet. I ran around my room, my brain on overdrive. I was blindly stuffing clothes into the bag. Probably not the best tactic when making a getaway, even though you have zero idea what you're running away from. I threw the journal into my bag and moved on to packing up my personal belongings which really only consisted of a necklace that was ripped off of my mother the day she died and my father's wedding ring. I grabbed my stick of deodorant and a toothbrush from my bathroom. Who ever said people on the run can't have good hygiene? As I was about to leave, I felt that same invading feeling I felt in that dream and the white hot pain returned. My vision went black.
Fluorescent lights burned my eyes when I opened them. Beige walls, with bland paintings surrounded me. I looked down at the white tile that is in hospitals and discerned my duffel bag was next to my bed. That's when I noticed the chair in the corner, with someone in it. Champei was fast asleep in a grey sweatshirt and black jeans, her face was serene, relaxed. I stared at the way her chest rose and fell with a steady beat, the way her dark hair fell around her face and spilled over her shoulders, and how the slope of her freckled nose fit perfectly with her features. There were dark bags the color of bruises under her eyes. Her breathing slowly increased, face being pulled together in fear, in sadness, and her hands gripped the green chair. Champei stirred and her eyes flew open.
"Bad dream?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't matter. How're you feeling?"
"My head hurts, a lot. I'm conscious, though, so that's a plus." Champei gave me a smile and a weak chuckle.
My surroundings came to me then and I remembered what happened, or at least, what I was conscious for. Fear creeped up my spine and left a shiver in its wake as I felt my smile slide off of my face. Champei took notice as a skeptical expression ran it's round across my features and settled in the bottom of my stomach. She gave me a puzzled look as I narrowed my eyes at the little window cut out on the wooden door.
"Where are we and what happened?"
"Don't freak out, we're safe. There are tunnels throughout the whole ship that all lead to one place, under the Hall. These are our headquarters. As for the what happened part, I think someone else wants to tell you that," Champei said this as her face lit up into a small smile she looked to suppress by biting her full lips. Ada came waltzing into the room in her ever extravagant manner. Upon seeing my favorite person's face, a knot untangled in my chest.
"Hey, how're you feeling?"
"Better, my head is still killing me, but other than that I'm fine. So, Champei said that you want to tell me what happened?" I said as I raised an eyebrow and my lips flickered into a smile that I pushed down as I tried not to laugh at the way Ada was absolutely beaming. She began to giggle, walking to my bedside and wrapping her arms around me. Her laughter was infectious and she soon had all of our stomachs aching with amusement. She laid down on the small hospital bed next to me. After everyone had calmed down a bit, Ada began her story with all of our smiles lingering.
"I met Champei at the East Door and she was explaining what was happening when she noticed the time and realized you weren't there yet, I went to your room, assuming your chronic lateness had struck again. When I got to your room, your door was open and you were laying in the doorway with your duffel bag next to you. I noticed someone was coming down the hall, dressed in all black, and was coming straight for you," Ada's voice thickened and I put my arm around her. I looked over at Champei, she gave me a reassuring look. I turned my focus back to Ada. "He walked closer to the door and saw me. I don't know why, but he just turned and walked the other way. I was so scared, I mean, what if I wasn't there? I grabbed your arm and put it around my neck and basically dragged you to Champei and she brought us here," She finished. There was an odd feeling in my gut and I could feel my eyes widen, Champei's face mirrored my own.
"Did you recognize the man in black?"
"No, it was really weird he just, like, appeared."
"We've heard reports, we're not sure, but we think The Flu has something to do with it. He's been going after our people with the journals, including you," Champei broke her silence. An unexplainable nip of cold up my spine, a doomed feeling rushed into my gut. I need to get out of this room. The atmosphere in there was too much.
"How long was I out?"
"Two days," Ada's mouth curved down and her eyes glinted with the start of tears.
"Hey, do you want to take a look around?" Champei noticed my lack of comfort and pulled me out of the panic I was drowning in.
"Yes," I responded with an exhalation of relief.
She led me out of the room with Ada stepping next to her and making light conversation which was a nice breath of fresh air considering what Champei told us.
We entered a large circular room and continued into a hallway and turned left, I trailed my hand along the purple walls, a nice change from the daunting steel I'd grown up with. The hallway went on for quite a ways and then opened up to a rectangular room lined with bunk beds topped with small mattresses.
"These are our bunks, you'll sleep on a bunk with me," She pointed her finger at me, "Ada you'll sleep on a bunk with Charlie on that bed over there," Champei gestured over to the other side of the room to a bunk bed with vacant spot and stripped mattress. We continued on through a door on the other side of the room. There was another hallway, somehow this was different, though. I stopped. Ada noticed and brushed Champei on the arm to show her. Both of them turned back and gave me slightly baffled looks.
"Hey, Champei, you said that guy was targeting people with journals, right?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Her voice rose in pitch throughout the question. Her eyebrows climbed up her face and her eyes got wide, she was looking at me like I had suddenly morphed into a person with three heads.
"Ada, did you see him take the journal or do you think he was coming back?"
"It did kind of look like he was on his way back, but I could be wrong."
That answer was all I needed, "Where's my bag?" I pushed an edge of urgency into my voice, which only confused the two girls more.
"Clayton, what's wrong?" Ada yelled down the hallway as I swiftly spun on my heel and ran back the way we came, back to my hospital room. I gathered a smothering amount of questioning looks from the other underground passengers, but I ignored them all, this was too important.
I arrived at the room, already reaching for my duffel bag. I grabbed the straps and pulled the bag onto the thin, uncomfortable mattress. I ripped open the zipper like a ravenous animal. I unpacked the entire bag and threw my hands all throughout the contents and then the empty shell of a bag, double checking. The journal wasn't there. I let out a breath of implausibility. I brought my hand down on the mattress and gripped the sheets into a ball. Ada entered the room, taking in the clothes spilling off of the bed and me standing there with tensed muscles, my jaw pushed to one side as another burst of air escaped my lips.
"It's gone?"
"Yeah," I frustratingly ran my hand through my hair.
"Wait what does this mean?"
"I don't know, but it certainly isn't good. I think I've seen him before, in that dream. He had the journal and he smiled," Rather maliciously, I thought to myself.
"What dream are you talking about?" Ada stared up at me with an uneasy expression glued to her features.
"I didn't tell you?"
"Nope," She shook her head and popped her lips at the 'p' in a totally Ada way. I delved into my dream, making sure to include the details of how that figure had had the journal and sneered at me while doing something to my head. Ada's face was in a state of surprise by the time I finished with my retelling.
"So, you've seen this...person before?" Well, they didn't exactly look like a person.
"Yeah, but they looked different from what you described earlier, he was less solid."
"Less solid? How does that work?"
"It looked like he was...spreading into the air around him. Does that make sense?"
"Somewhat," Ada answered. I took this as a good enough answer to move on.
"The way he smiled, it was sickening."
"Who, or what, do you think he is?"
"I don't know, definitely not human or at least not totally human." At this point, I turned my attention to Champei who appeared in the doorway with a middle-aged woman in tow. She met my eyes and an odd wave of deja vu washed through my mind.
"Have we met before?"
"No," Her voice was rich and strong, the voice of a leader, "but I've watched you from afar and I recruited you, my name is Lin Mei by the way," She continued.
"Recruited me? What does that mean?"
"I chose you to join our little underground operation and hopefully beat The Entity."
"What's that?"
"The Entity is who you've had a run-in with. He's a man whose body has been completely taken over by The Flu, which I assume you've read up on and have some questions. Probably along the lines of 'What the hell is it?'" Well, you nailed that one. I thought as I nodded as a gesture for her to continue. "The Flu is a disease that's contracted through any bodily fluids, spit, tears, sweat, and so on. It progresses from small violent tendencies and actions to full blown murder. People who are murdered just disappear, the bodies are never found and no evidence is either. The Flu is the reason the Earth is completely destroyed, people tried to escape to different parts of the world, but it didn't work. Eventually, a portion of the remaining population was loaded onto this ship, cured, vaccinated, and had their memory erased. The only people who know the truth are the people in our organization and the Directs," She finished explaining and my jaw dropped.
There was one burning question fighting to get out of my mouth, "Why does The Entity want the journals?"
"We believe one of the journals contains the key to the vaccination, if he can decode the journal, as we have tried, he can potentially render our defenses useless and unleash the full force of The Flu on all of us." Something darted across my peripheral vision, it was a black streak. I whipped my head to the left so fast I felt a little shock go through my neck. Ouch, I'm going to feel this in the morning. I was faced by the same sinister grin I saw in my dream. I felt something force its way into my mind. I tried to block it out, but I couldn't. The Entity was somehow inside of me. My heart was beating so rapidly, fueled by adrenaline and fear. The ringing came back and my vision was getting spotty. I felt a random burst of strength and resolution. There was something else there, too. My eyebrows pulled together as I looked over at Champei. Her eyes were trained right on The Entity, but somehow I knew it was her who was helping me from within.
A voice, or voices, appeared in my head, "I see you're like me, only weaker, more gullible, more mortal, killable." The whispers were chilling, and a disheartening feel settled in my stomach like a rock thrown in a pond. I was starting to panic and the familiar feeling of near unconsciousness was closing in on me. Then, a familiar voice started in my head. "Stay calm, I'll protect you. He most likely won't be able to hurt you much while there's two of us." A soothing wave of warmness washed over me
"Thank you, Champei," I tried to focus my voice into her head, but I didn't know if it worked. The pain in my head weakened a bit and I was able to open my eyes without seeing so many spots. The scene that greeted my vision was truly unsettling.
The Entity was no longer standing in the middle of the circular room. There were broken wires dangling from the ceiling, sending sparks bouncing off the aluminum floor and ricocheting in random directions. Smoke was spreading from the room and I searched for the source before realizing it was coming from the lights above. Champei was curled on the floor, seemingly unconscious. I crossed the space between us in a few hurried strides. Ada and Lin Mei were nowhere to be seen. I pressed my fingers into the soft flesh just below her jawline, feeling the steady, reassuring beat of her pulse eased some of my worries. I slipped my hands under the bend of her knees and the crook of her neck and lifted her rather frail body, I carried her into the hospital like room that I woke up in just a few hours earlier. Gently, I set her down on the mattress and glanced out of the doorway.
I spotted a small rectangular object laying on the prior battleground. It had a tree patterned into the front cover. I stooped down and gingerly picked up the journal. It seemed like something was off about it, but I didn't worry about that. After quickly checking that all of the pages were still there with no rips, I convinced myself that nothing was wrong.
There was one thing I was worried about, though. Ada and Lin Mei were nowhere to be seen. I jogged back across the room and peeked into the room Champei was in. Still unconscious. I dug around the room until I found a pen and a small scrap of paper. I brought the pen down on the paper and scribbled a quick note.
You may not remember what happened, I'll explain later. Ada and Lin Mei disappeared, I'm going to look for them. Meet me in the bunks in an hour (if you're awake by then). -Clayton
I finished the note and slipped the paper onto the nightstand beside the bed, it seemed to glide across the wood as I walked through the doorway, pulling the door closed until a small sliver of visibility remained.
I crossed the large room out into the hallway and turned left, towards the bunks. I quickly swept the room for any signs of Champei and Lin Mei. Nothing.
At this point, I didn't know my way around so I was blindly wandering halls that broke off from the main ones, opening doors and poking my head in to check them. All the rooms I checked were mysteriously empty. I didn't dwell on that fact, though, I just needed to find Ada and Lin Mei.
I rounded a corner blindly as I silently cursed my strained neck. There was a doorway to my left and another farther down the hall on the right. I headed toward the closest one, not expecting to find anything. I opened the door and flipped the light switch. This room wasn't really different from any of the others, the same desk in the corner, a lamp resting on top. However, this room was larger. It had a sizable conference table in the middle with chairs surrounding it on all sides. There were two chairs that were displaced, the two farthest from me. I recognized the long blonde hair cascading over the back of the chair. My whole body tightened and I went numb. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they carried me across the room. I reached out and spun the chairs around to face me. I immediately found the spot where the carotid artery passed through the neck. Her skin was cold. There was a vacant pulse. My eyes started to well up. No, Ada, please. This can't be real. Just take a breath, please, Ada.
My knees hit the ground and I pulled my hands to my face, already feeling the tears rushing through my fingers. There was a hole being punched through my entire being, the skin and bone painfully giving way as Ada was ripped from me.
"You're still alive, I know you are. This is just one of your pranks, but you can give it up now, I found you," My voice came out soft and uneven, the words having to careen around the large lump in my throat. I felt a hand run down my back, I turned thinking it was Ada. It wasn't.
Champei sat down and gathered me into a hug as I fully lost it, my sobs sounding more like screams or howls as they reverberated off of the crook of her neck. She rocked me back and forth, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
"How did you know I was here?" I gasped in between sobs as my stomach convulsed with the effort of keeping them in.
"When you didn't show up at the bunks, I went looking for you and then I heard you crying," She wasn't crying as much as I was, but she was still having trouble choking the words out. I tried to stop the body ripping pain from coming back, but it always did.
By the time I had calmed down enough to talk without having my sobs carry into my words, Champei and I hadn't noticed that Lin Mei had been watching us with wise eyes that were shedding tears of their own.
I turned my attention to her, "How did this happen?"
"The Entity took all of her energy to compensate for what he lost in the Control Room. He took some of mine and Champei's, too, but took all of hers to hurt you."
"What does taking someone's energy mean?" The tears were falling down my face again and I had to clutch my stomach to keep the pieces of myself together.
"He fed on her vitality until her body just shut down. Her heart was too weak to beat and her organs failed," She explained, her expression was sorrowful as each word cut me like a razorblade to my skin. Champei ran her hand through her short hair.
My mind was blank and I was mentally exhausted, I knew that I wouldn't get any sleep, for the next few weeks, or years, or forever. Champei noticed that I was blankly staring at the wall, my eyes dead, and placed a comforting hand on my knee.
"You want to get some food?" When she said this, I realized just how starving I was, my stomach calling out for a real meal.
"Yeah," My voice was rough and my eyes were undoubtedly ringed with red.
We arrived in the kitchen, I didn't remember the walk over. Champei pulled down a large pot from the big cupboards above the long counters. She continued to grab a box of noodles and some shredded cheese along with a gallon of milk from the fridge. I laid my head down on my forearms.
Soon, there was a large bowl of macaroni and cheese in front of me. Champei pulled out a chair and sat down next to me. I pulled my bowl towards me and relished the warm food slipping down my raw throat. After finishing my bowl, I walked out of the kitchen, ignoring the baffled looks I was receiving from Champei. I walked back to the bunks and fell into the mattress that Champei pointed out earlier. My head hit the pillow and so did my tears. I was broken. Eventually, I somehow fell asleep, a dream never playing in my mind.
Someone was shaking me awake. I groaned before opening my eyes to be greeted by Champei's eyes boring into mine. "I need to talk to you," Her breath was minty, I guessed that she'd just brushed her teeth. I nodded and pulled myself out of bed. My boots still on from yesterday, my teeth left unbrushed, and my pants and shirt wrinkled.
I blindly followed Champei through the halls that she easily navigated without a light. We walked for a few minutes before stopping in front of a closed door. She twisted the knob and pushed the door open. I walked into a small room with a pool table in it. She grabbed two cue sticks and handed one over to me.
"Listen, I know it's way too early to be talking about this, but we need to prepare to fight The Entity. I can help you," I felt someone slip into my mind and Champei continued what she was saying in my head, "I can teach you how to do this, I can teach you to get revenge."
"How?" I asked her aloud.
"You've already done it. Do you remember in the Control Room? You did it then."
I tried to do it again. I focused on projecting my words and myself into her head, "Is it working?"
"Yes, I can hear you and I can feel you in my brain. You didn't do that earlier, you're a natural at this," She observed. The rest of the day passed in a blur of pool and training. This continued for the rest of the week.
By Monday of the next week, I'd gotten used to the morning routine, wake up, brush my teeth, get dressed, meet Champei in the room to train and play pool. However, this morning was different. I entered the bathroom and grabbed my blue toothbrush before inspecting the deep bruise like bags under my eyes, still not able to sleep very well since Ada's death. I started to tear up knowing what they were the result of. I watched as blackness started to ooze into the bathroom. I froze, thinking it was just a hallucination. I felt a presence forcing its way into my head, a now familiar feeling.
I put my mental wall up, a skill Champei and I had been working rigorously on all week. I was fairly good at it, but I doubted it would hold under the pressure of The Entity's battering. A sweat broke out of my forehead with the effort. I kept him out, but I could tell that he wasn't pushing as hard as he could.
"How'd you like the present I left for you in the conference room?" He wasn't completely in my head so his slithering voice sounded quiet, muffled. My lips quirked up into a microscopic smile at this fact.
I composed the anger and sorrow that bubbled up inside me and calmly responded, "That was cruel, and you will pay," I pulled my neck up and met his gaze through the mirror, no longer will I cower beneath him. My lips were pressed into a thin line. The Entity's constant, menacing sneer faltered.
"You are stronger than I expected," His pointed teeth flicking in and out of sight. For once I wasn't scared, I felt bold.
Before I could stop them, my tongue was forming the words and my mind was projecting them into his,"You're more dull than I expected."
A hiss like sound emerged from his mouth, almost as if he'd been burned.
"You will regret that later," The Entity disappeared, leaving nothing but me and the fire burning inside.
A few months passed after that visit. It only made me want to push harder with my training. My grief over Ada strengthening into white hot determination to make him hurt as I have. I confided in Champei with this fact and she agreed that we should make the training more difficult.
I was being jostled awake. I opened my eyes to Champei standing over me, looking scared.
"The Entity is trying to attack the passengers, we're holding him off as best we can, but you're the only one that can kill him," A note of panic crept its way into her voice. My eyes widened as I fully processed what she just murmured. I swung my legs over the edge of my mattress, the cold metal biting the soles of my feet. I quickly pulled on a pair of random pants and shoes before grabbing the first shirt I could get my hands on.
Champei led me out of the bunks to a wide hallway that flared out into a semi-circle pod and continued on.
"We put all of the passengers on the other side of the ship, this is the only way to get to them. I have to go and help everyone evacuate, you're going to have to do this on your own," She reached out and squeezed my hand. I pulled her closer and placed my lips gingerly on hers.
"Good luck," I whispered into her hair, dropping my hands from around her.
"You too," She turned and walked away.
The Entity stalked forward, Directs laying lifeless at our feet and scattered around the ship. I was the only thing between The Entity and the other passengers. My heart was pumping so hard, it felt like I had a heavy metal band moving through my veins. There was a burst water pipe overhead, a storm had started, water mixed with blood. I couldn't see all the way down the hallway and The Entity was only a few feet away, then he was not.
"You are all going to die," I couldn't see where this voice was coming from, they were whispers combined, slithering about The Entity's mouth. My blood turned to ice, slivers slicing me from within. It felt as if they attacked my head in a synchronized motion.
Stop it, I won't let you in. The pain worsened but I pushed it back. Get out of my head!! Another knife stabbed me behind the lower ear. I pushed him out. I could feel his darkness trying to override me. My eyes had been squeezed in concentration and I had pressed my lips into a thin line. The Entity wasn't pushing into my head anymore, I could feel his presence lessen a little and the pain was reduced to mere needles. Suspiciously, I wrenched my eyes open and took in the scene around me. The faded shadow of The Entity overflowed into the air around him before forming a pure black hole of a person. Ink bleeding all over the paper, coming alive. He was right in front of me. Fear gripped my entire body and twisted.
"You should've gone with them, maybe then your death would've been quicker, less painful," The Entity was slowly circling me, his teeth the only facial feature that was distinguishable. The water bounced off of him while it drenched me. I found power in this, a reminder that I was at least human. The pain in my head cracked my skull.
"Why me?!"
"Because you are different. You are stronger, but not strong enough," The voice appeared in my head as he poked and prodded my brain with what felt like a tazer. He was trying to find a fault in my wall. Luckily, there wasn't one. Champei had made sure of that.
I felt a cold feeling travel up my arm and up to my neck. The Entity was close.
"Ah!" I tried push him back mentally and physically. I stumbled forward, he grabbed my shirt and used my momentum against me. I hit the floor with a sickening slap. I flipped myself over and hopped up. I planned out my next move in my head, hiding it from his view in my mind. There was a black blur that darted by my face. The Entity hammered me from my head, the pain was sending tremors through my body. I circled his brain, filling the cracks and finding the flaws in his defense. To distract him, I threw a punch with my all of my strength. My fist met something not quite bone, but not pure flesh. At least he was still human enough to be punched. His mind pulled back and I pushed forward, he was weakening and it was time. I pulled down my wall. The Entity was taken aback and froze, both in my head and on the ground. He didn't pause for long, though.
I could feel the darkness start in my head. He was contaminating my body, grating through my body like a knife on steel. Excruciating pain filled me, my vision was slipping and my face was distorted with pure torment. My throat was on fire from screaming, matching the rest of me. I crashed to my knees with my whole body tensed. I gathered all of my remaining strength and put the rest of my plan into action. I forced myself to fight back and reach into his head. I anchored myself to his brain and squeezed, now that he left himself utterly exposed. He pulled back a little into his own body. My fortitude returned a little bit as he retreated from my mind. I dropped my mental walls again and let him consume me. That same bone tearing pain started again. This time, I targeted his heart, the core of a person and where all of their energy is stored.
He abandoned my head again and created a shield around his heart. I doubted I could get him to leave himself exposed like that again. I was so tired, every single part of me ached. I wanted to give up right there and let him kill me. I watched him with hawk like eyes, my soul boring into his. I flung my arm out for another punch, I was too slow and instead, his fist met my stomach. I jerked back and ended up laying on my back. He seemed to punch all of my remaining strength out of me. I was ready for this to be over, I couldn't go on. I laid there, accepting that this was the end.
"Goodbye, Champei," I tried to reach her head, I didn't think it worked.
"You imbecile!" The Entity stood over me and weaseled his way back into my body.
I was so weary that I couldn't keep my guard up. He got to my heart. I could feel my body giving up. The pain was making me black out, every nerve in my body was on fire. I involuntarily arched my back, screaming. It probably looked like a scene out of The Exorcist.
"No, Clayton, please don't, we need you. Clayton, I need you," Champei's voice turned thick and faltered towards the end. I built my barricade back up. Champei was giving me some of her energy.
"Champei, stop, you're going to hurt yourself."
She didn't stop, and I was getting stronger. The Entity was strangely weakening. He collapsed. I didn't know why he was breaking down like this, but it was like he was admitting defeat and I took my chance. I drove myself into his body and started to work on his heart.
He screamed, an unworldly sound. I kept going, now moving towards him, a sneer pulling my lips up and adding a vicious edge to my glare.
Suddenly, he stopped moving. His heart felt empty. I didn't realize that I had let a few tears slip down my cheeks.
"I did it, Champei," I told her, my exhaustion pulling me to sleep and my lungs heaving with the effort of what I had just done. I started to wander over to where I thought she would be. My legs wobbled like a newborn giraffe with every step.
I arrived where all the other passengers where harbored and asked around for Champei. I was pointed over to the bunks, a few hallways over. She was asleep on her bed and I laid down next to her. Draping my arm over her, I started to dowse. It was finally all over, I smiled tasting the salty sting of tears.
I'm so so so sorry that i haven't been very active on this app for awhile but this is my hero's journey story for my honors ELA class. I really hope you enjoyed it!! I'm going to write more in this story because we had a 10 page limit (that i went over, whoops) and i just really love the plot line of this story.
:)
