H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath

No. 9

5

No. Nine

“Help us?” Erika asked.

H.A.L.F. 9 approached them slowly. If Erika hadn’t been holding Jack, she would have taken a step backward. After what she’d seen 9 do to the soldiers, she felt uneasy about him.

“I can help your friend,” he said. “Lay him back down.”

Though Erika’s right arm felt like wobbly spaghetti from holding Jack up, she didn’t let go of him and neither did Ian.

“Your friend has lost a large quantity of blood. If he continues to loose blood, he will expire.”

“That’s why we have to get him to a hospital,” Ian said. “So please, stand aside so we can get him outta here.” Ian’s words may have been polite, but his tone was clipped.

“I can stop the blood loss.” H.A.L.F. 9 reached his hand toward Jack.

Ian pulled Jack backward and away from 9’s touch. Erika almost toppled over from the sudden jerking of Jack’s body but she caught her balance and remained upright.

“What’re you doing? Keep your hands to yourself,” Ian said.

H.A.L.F. 9’s brows came together in what could have been anger. But his face was so smooth, his features so small and his eyes so dark and blank that it was difficult to gauge his emotions.

“Maybe he needs to touch Jack to heal him,” Erika said. “Am I right?”

H.A.L.F. 9 nodded. “I will not harm your friend. If I desired to terminate him, I would have accomplished the task by now.”

On the one hand, 9’s statement calmed Erika’s fears. But on the other it simply reminded her that 9 could kill her – all of them – if he wanted to. Note to self. Don’t piss him off.

“Let’s give it a shot, Ian. If he can heal as well as he can kill, it might just save Jack’s life.”

After a few seconds, Ian said, “Fine. But if he tries anything - ”

You’ll what? Erika kept the question to herself.

They gently lowered Jack to the ground. Erika knelt and rested Jack’s head in her lap. He looked as though he was in a peaceful sleep. Or dead. The thought made her shudder.

H.A.L.F. 9 knelt beside Jack. He put one of his thin hands on Jack’s chest. Now with 9 so close, Erika could see his face. His lips were thin and pale. He had high, prominent cheekbones but a small bump of a nose. As she stared at him, 9 met her eyes with his. As she sized him up, Erika thought that although his features were a bit unusual, it was his eyes that were unlike anything she’d ever seen. The nearly full moon shone like a reflection in a mirror off of the obsidian orbs in his head.

Erika’s heart beat away in her chest like a runaway train. Her armpits were wet, her neck clammy. She was not only frightened for Jack, but unnerved by the strange being with his hands pressed against Jack.

H.A.L.F. 9 kept one hand on Jack’s heart as he moved the other slowly from Jack’s stomach to his chest then his shoulder.

“What are you doing to him?” asked Ian.

Erika heard the worry in Ian’s voice. But as she observed 9’s gentle touch, Erika’s fear receded. There was no gasping for air or writhing in pain as it had been with the soldiers that 9 choked.