The Girl With The Crimson Eyes

11: Fire Heart

Zeo

The public hospital of Fallen Star was a gloomy place. It reminded Zeo of the infirmary, but hundreds of times bigger. They treated Adrian while Zeo sat in the crowded waiting room. He witnessed people bleeding, burnt, with missing limbs, cries, wails, screams, and all kinds of odors that revolted his stomach. Zeo closed his eyes, sweating and shaking, but he held his own.

One hour later, Zeo walked into Adrian's room. The young man had woken up and stared at him with a smile plastered across his broken face.

"Zeo, I have no words to thank you," Adrian whispered, his voice thin and fragile.

"No, mister. I did what I had to do. You were right about Marcus. I should be the one thanking you," Zeo said, staring downward.

"Still, thank you."

Zeo smiled and nodded.

"Check the pocket in my pants, Zeo." Adrian pointed at a chair nearby and tried to lift his head.

He reached out for the pants hanging on the chair and found a golden card in them. "What is this?" Zeo inspected it. The card said 'Lovecraft Mansion' and had three phone numbers with some codes. "This belongs to Marcus."

Adrian nodded. "I took it when he was hitting me." He laughed and then grimaced at the pain in his jaw. "Lovecraft Mansion . . . That is in Crysalton."

"Yeah, so that's where Rem is!" Zeo's eyes shone. "And this is an ID. We can access his personal information with this!"

"Exactly, we can find out what is going on behind all this mess, and perhaps find Ellyn . . . "

"We need to act fast," Zeo said, standing up. "I'll be back soon, mister."

He hastened to the lower floor, where they provided free computers. Zeo used the ID on the infrared scanner and accessed Marcus' profile. He used the card attached to it to input the passwords. Zeo had learned a lot about computers and managed to gather some information, except for the one encrypted with different passwords. He rushed to print everything. Time was running out; once Marcus realized he had lost his ID, he would lock the access to it.

Zeo sat in a corner and read everything.

'Marcus Froilan, 37 years old. Magenta Gandini's personal bodyguard. Divorced. One daughter.' Nothing suspicious about him. Zeo searched for Magenta online and found some information. 'Magenta Gandini, 39 years old, Co-owner of the Red Heaven Tower and owner of the Lovecraft Mansion. Single. No children.

He returned to Marcus' profile to check things about Magenta he hadn't found online. 'Magenta Gandini, member of the ECC: Eugenics Center of Crysalton.' Zeo had read about the ECC in the past, but like most people, he thought they were just a myth. Up until that moment.

Eugenics was a common practice among the richest citizens. People paid millions for modified babies or for enhancing their own abilities and health. Illegal in some states and legal in others, the black market for eugenics was huge across the globe.

The myths claimed the ECC experimented with humans, Nephilims, and even Anglishes. Some crazy people assured the government supported the ECC because they provided the military with genetically enhanced humans.

A shiver ran down Zeo's spine when things began to make sense.

What if this Magenta woman didn't adopt Remnya but bought her? What if Ellyn knew something? That wouldn't be good for them. Zeo knew that a lot of the said crazy people suddenly disappeared from the face of Earth after speaking about the ECC.

The more he read, the harder his heart pumped with adrenaline. He found another important name in his research: Ronner Kavalar, 26 years old. Hybrid Nephilim. Unfortunately, most of the info about him seemed to have been erased from the Internet, no matter how much he searched.