Overdose

12. The Executioner

I was called into Xander's office early in the morning. It couldn't have even been six before the intercom blared into my room, waking me up. I walked in to find him sitting at his desk, looking frustrated. Caesar was sitting on his desk, flipping through a binder.

It wasn't the first time I had been in Xander's office. It was decorated very dark. There was a black chaise lounge in the corner of the room next to a tall wooden ebony bookcase. The bookcase held a few books, such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. There was a painting of the Grim Reaper behind his desk, and just looking at it gave me bad vibes. On the wall, there a photograph framed of him, a woman, and a boy who looked like he was a teenager. He looked just like Xander, but Xander had never mentioned having a son. He was holding a skull, passing it between his hands as though it was some kind of ball.

"Sit." He didn't even look at me. Caesar put the binder down.

I sat down across from him. "Do you need something?"

"Yes, Executioner, I did." He put the skull down. "One of my experiments has actually worked. Unfortunately, it's had some unintended consequences."

"And you called me in here just to tell me that?"

He smiled. "Well, you just have such a strong bond with the person I did the experiment on, so I thought you might have wanted to know."

"I don't have a bond with anyone in here." I leaned back. "There is no one in this Facility that is actually important to me."

"Is that so?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. It is."

"So, Yvonne is not important to you?" Caesar spoke for the first time.

"Who?"

Xander let out a laugh. "You mean you are not friends with her? That is very hard to believe."

"We've talked a few times, but that is it. I don't really think this is the place to meet friends." I rolled my eyes. "What was this experiment anyway? Did you take away her emotions too?"

"No, I did not. I finally gave someone powers. I have created the first Prodigial that hasn't had to be put in the containment unit. I am so proud of myself." He sat there, silent, as if he was waiting for me to clap. Caesar started clapping, and Xander glared at him. He stopped clapping. "Let me explain this in a way you would understand. I injected Yvonne with a serum made from some DNA from one of our older Prodigials. "

"Prodigials?" I asked.

"Don't cut me off. I let it settle, and then put her in a chamber and set it on fire. The fire wouldn't have killed her, but it was definitely effective. I left her in there and then took her out after ten minutes. When she came out, she wasn't burnt, but her body temperature was very high-"

"You put her in a room full of fire. Did you expect her to be freezing?" I cut him off.

"I wasn't finished." He put his hand up, annoyed. "After an hour, I ran some tests on her, and caused her to have a panic attack. She got very riled up, and I noticed that she was smoking."

"The experiment worked!" Caesar clapped, cutting Xander off. "Xander is a genius."

"OK, that's enough of that" Xander glared at Ceasar, who slumped his shoulders like a child who got scolded. "It was clear to me that the smoke was a sign of something. When she got overwhelmed, her body temperature went up. I'm sure that if she got too overwhelmed, she would be able to produce fire."

"Well, congratulations. But what does that have to do with me?"

"I want you to keep an eye on her."