Abnormal {Book 1: Completed, Book 2: Ongoing}

Chapter 22

Adrius's POV

I scan the schedule quickly, find my name in bold and underlined at the bottom of the list. 

Disable all alerts in the system.

Immediately, I rush upstairs to the tech room, frantically typing in the password to the system. I check the schedules again. This has to be done within the next 20 minutes. 

First, I disable the fire alarms. Then the smoke alarms. Then the security alarms. I watch closely as each of the small LED lights on the facility map turn dark, signaling that the alarms are off. 

Suddenly, I hear footsteps coming from right outside the door. I lunge forwards, slamming my palm against the large green button on the control panel to shut down the whole system, locking it immediately. Then I crawl underneath the table, moving a large wooden box in front of my body. 

I hear a loud thump against the door. Two thumps. Then a crash. 

I narrow my eyes to see through the slit near the bottom of the box. I can see a pair of black boots coming closer to me, and I hold my breath, praying for the person not to discover my existence until I have a chance to attack him.

The person sits down at the seat I just left, and starts typing on the keys. I assume that they are trying to hack into the system. Just as they scoot backwards on the seat, I push the wooden box forwards, hard, so that it collides with the person.

They fall backwards, cracking their head against the concrete wall. I scramble out from my hiding place, rising to my feet with lighting speed. My enemy is a tall, muscular guy, about my age, with a shock of electric blue hair. He leaps to his feet immediately and tackles me to the ground, wrapping his hands around my throat.

I gag and slip three fingers between his hand and the skin of my throat, struggling to breathe. With a kick to his shin, I am released from his grasp, and I dig my left index finger into his eye socket.

He howls in pain, and while he is distracted, I frantically scan the room for a weapon. In my stupidity, I had forgotten to bring a weapon to the conference, and I didn't have time to stop by my room before coming to disable the alarms. 

Just as he sits up from his position on the ground, I grab a long metal rod from underneath the desk and slam it into his head. He groans loudly, then attempts the wrestle the weapon from my grip, using both hands.

Wrong choice.

I let go of the rod, catching him by surprise so that the rod hits the edge of the table. In that split second, I reach out and grab a pistol shaped object from his belt, hoping against hope that it's an actual gun.

I jam the weapon against his side and pull the trigger. 

Nothing happens.

He laughs and blood trickles down the side of his cheek. He must have gotten a cut from the tip of the rod. "The gun isn't loaded," he rasps, still laughing. His voice sounds scratchy and hoarse, which is quite unnerving. In that moment of distraction, he whips out a razor from his boot and tries to stab it into my chest, but I dodge his attack just in time. 

I grab his hand with mine and jerk the razor towards his neck, bending his wrist backwards. He's too surprised to react as the tip of the razor draws droplets of...blue blood.

His blood is not a dark blue caused by a trick of the light, but a rather light, shimmery blue that one might find in a ink of a cheap pen. I stare in horror as the blue...fluid slowly forms a path down his neck. 

He's not human.

He freezes in place as my eyes stay glued to his neck, as if the power of my gaze has caused him to be unable to move.

He's not human.

"Dmitri...he did this to you?" I can't help but ask, the razor clattering to the floor.

"Yes," he...the creature rasps. "Dmitri did this to me. He did it to all of us who swore to his service."

"How long have you been like this?"

"Since I was drafted. When I was born."

He's never been human. He's never felt what it was like to be a normal human being. Just a creature trained to kill.

"Haven't you tried to escape? Since you know that he did this to you?"

"No. Our loyalty is to Dmitri. We worship him, and him only."

Then he lunges towards me once again, his hands squeezing my throat so hard that I think my soul is escaping from my body.

He's not human.