Chapter 3
'How am I still alive?' Mika wondered.
That question was her only focus.
'I was supposed to be dead by now. I didn't plan for this. I have no idea what to do past this point.'
Kai turned on the porch lights and entered the apartment building, kicking the front door open with a hefty thud. Lights flickered in the hallway as they climbed the stairs and led her into the most unlikely room.
Numerous display cases boasted relics of the old world in conditions she had up to then only dreamed were possible.
They had everything.
Mika's eyes scanned the relics, trying to identify them.
"You have a music player?" she cried, falling to her knees. "What sort of music do you have?"
Kai cocked his head to the side before raising an eyebrow and shrugging. "All types. What do you like?"
A shadow fell over Mika, and she looked up to him looming over her.
'He's figured me out,' she thought. 'He's going to kill me now.'
He smiled. "You don't have to look so scared."
"I feel like I should be," Mika admitted.
"Oh, because of the arm thing?" he asked. "That was nothing. Milo has healing powers so he will sort it all out at some point. When he can be bothered."
That wasn't the reason why she was scared, but she decided to go with it.
"Milo?" she asked.
"My friend," He nodded.
"That kid is your friend?" she asked.
"That ain't no kid," Kai said, smirking. "He just looks young. Trust me."
Something in his face scared Mika, though she had no idea what he meant by his words. Whatever he knew about that boy had to be disturbing.
"Want a drink?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine," she said as he moved into the kitchen.
"You sure are," he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for her to make it out.
'Was I supposed to hear that?' she wondered but ultimately decided to pretend she hadn't when he returned holding a beer.
"So what's your story?" he asked.
"I don't know," Mika replied. She felt stupid for saying it but it was the truth.
Kai squinted down at her. "You don't know? You must know why you came here to find me?"
'What do I say?' Mika panicked, wide-eyed as a doe.
"I'm... I'm here because I wanted to meet you," she said, trying to say whatever he wanted to hear.
His eyebrows furrowed.
"Repeat that," he demanded.
That was the point at which Mika's blood started to run cold.
Her mouth was too dry to form the words for a second time.
"Do as you're told," he prompted, stepping closer to her. His face was so close to hers. Forcing her. Making her small.
Mika felt herself shrinking as he approached, trying in vain to pull away from his eyes.
"Erm, well, I wanted to meet you, Erm," she stammered. "I heard so much about you and I wanted to see if it was all true."
He cocked his head to the side.
Then he slammed her face into the wall.
Her eyes watered and filled with blood. She sat forward, accelerating at a speed she'd never felt before. Then the polished wood flooring tiles rose to meet her face, nose first.
Blood dripped down her chest as he pulled her head up by the hair.
"Please..." she managed to mutter.
"Please?" he asked. "Please what? You come here and lie to my face? What did you expect me to do?"
"I'm sorry," was all she could think to say. "I'm sorry. Please don't kill me."
"Why would I kill you?!" he cried. "Who the hell are you?"
Mika sat there in a pool of blood, too disorientated to run, but her eyes must have flitted to the exit.
"It won't do any good to run. You heard how fast I am, right?" he warned as he circled the room. "You are out of options, really. You can run and die. You can explain yourself and die or you can try to fight... and die."
He grinned as he said that last part as though hoping she would try to fight. As if the blood lust took hold of his senses and made him itch to tear her limb from limb.
"I'll prove it," Mika cried, her mind operating purely on autopilot at that point.
"How?" he asked. The tension melted from his form as he awaited her proposal.
"Sleep with me," she offered. "That's what I came for. I'll prove it. You'll see I'm not lying."
His eyes narrowed as if considering it, eyes measuring up her scantly clad body.
After a second he nodded.
"What do I really have to lose in that situation?" he mused, a sly grin stretching across his lips. "But you aren't going to enjoy it."
Mika's face fell, eyes widened.
'That worked?'
Then she felt his hands in her hair.
He shoved her head back into the wooden floor, into the sticky blood, and yanked off her leather clothing in one firm pull. The leather snapped against her skin, leaving cut marks and spilling more blood.
'I must try not to lose all my blood,' was her only concern as Kai pressed harder on her skull.
Then, 'Doesn't matter if I lose my blood if my skull is caved in.'
"Please... please stop..." she mumbled through pursed lips.
Then heard laughter.
"I told you you weren't going to enjoy it," he taunted.
'I will,' Mika thought.
"Please fuck me," she begged, arching her back further than humanly possible.
"You really want it, don't you?" he asked, almost confused. "You know it will kill you, right?"
Mika was fully prepared to beg for it, regardless of the consequences, to tell him that it would be worth it, when she heard a blood-curdling shriek.
"What on Earth are you doing?" the robed newcomer asked, sashaying over in disgust.
Mika assumed he was referring to the extremely violent scene before him.
'But boy was I wrong,' she figured out as he began to cry over the blood stains on his freshly polished floor.
"You should really lay down a plastic tarp for these kinds of activities," he commented with a tut, a head shake and a frown. "I even bought you a tarp, remember? You said it was too small."
"Sorry, Vrethie," Kai said. He didn't sound particularly sorry to Mika.
"So what's your story?" Vrethie asked her, acknowledging her presence for the first time.
"She doesn't know," Kai answered for her. "All I know for sure is that she's lying."
"Hmm." Vrethie rubbed his chin. "Well you squished her skull and she's still alive so I can only assume she's a PAVE assassin."
"I'm not an assassin!" Mika cried. "I don't even have a day's training. I'm an office worker. Admin."
"Then why aren't you dead?" Vrethie asked, his face suddenly very close to hers. She stared into those cold blue eyes and lost her train of thought. Even as she tried to backtrack, it was as if the memories were ripped away from her.
'He's trying to read my mind!'
"Please stop!" she cried. "I have a failsafe. You'll wipe my memory completely."
"I can't get a read," he muttered. "That's... certainly odd."
After a second of musing, he turned to Kai.
"If she needs a failsafe like that... we have to kill her now. She's a sleeper agent."
Chapter 4Mika blinked back tears."I... I don't want to die," she whispered. "Please... I beg you...""Nobody ever does," Kai said with a shrug. He must hear these words too often for them to have any real effect on his heart."I... I can help you," she spluttered, speaking up. A last-ditch attempt to stay alive. She felt herself begin to glitch - her hands snaking - as an idea occured to her. "I'll do anything.""Anything?" Kai asked, tilting his head to the side. 'That means he's considering it!' she thought, not daring to count her chickens....'Where does that saying even come from?' she wondered. An inopportune time to be pondering the legitimacy of the old warning."Don't even think about it," Vrethie warned him. "Aww," Kai complained, pursing his lips. "But she's just way too hot to kill, man.""If we keep her alive, she is your responsibility," Vrethie warned. "She will have to get approval but I can swing that.""You acctually gonna do anything I say?" Kai asked, bending
Eigen sat in his seat, dying of boredom.It was always boring when Miaka went off on a mission. He wanted to follow her, but was it a good idea to leave the enclosure."Probably not," he muttered to himself. But he did not care.Not in the slightest."I'm off," he announced to the mechanical guards with a wide, terrifying grin.They mirrored him, staring back in horror as he stood, shaking off the wires and stale air as he went."You can't go," they were crying in union as he slipped through the net. The net designed to keep him in was all the use of a chocolate tea pot.He laughed at their cries as he took flight, flying away from their cries for his return."Please," they cried. "If you go we will be unprotected. WE ALL NEED YOU! We will die if you Goooooo!!!"He didn't even look back as they begged and pleaded."She needs me more," he muttered, focused only on his one true love. Her. The one. Maika.She was on her way to find the monster he dispised the most. Kai. His polar opposit
Miaka smiled as the three boys decided her fate."I almost wish Eigen were here.""Who is Eigen?" Vrethie asked. She shook her head, not aware she had spoken the words out loud. "yOU Didn't" he replied. "I am the worlds most powerful psychic.A boast - but not one that wasn't completely true. This guy had real power."It's his eyes," she thought. "All psychics have those same ice blue orbs."As she stared into his eyes now, she couldn't help but wonder what he thought about when nobody was listening in. What would she think about if she had one spare second to herself."Me." Eigen whispered into her brain. "I am still with you. In spirit and in body."A rush of wind almost knocked over the house and she heard him landing outside."Oh geez," she cried, looking out of the rear house window. "He really did it. He really left.""Who is he?" Vrethie cried."So much for being the worlds best psychic." Eigen cried, grinning widely as he entered the house through the window - how a gaping
Miaka sat in the kitchen, an inch of ash dangling from her cigarette hanging from between her fingers. With each drag a new memory popped in and out of her brain.She turned to her side, shocked to see the grin of her so called souls-mate. He grinned maniachally.Stop trying to read my mind, she thought, amazed at his persistance."Why did you leave the enclosure and come here?" she asked, more to herself than to Eigen.He answered non the less."Because you did," he said, stealing her cigarette and taking a drag. "It was way too boring there without you.""But what about all the others?" she asked. "You were meant to stay back to protect them while I went off to save the world."To the last part she added air quotes. There was no point in pretending anymore. She was not the one. Not the main character. It had to be one of these powerful men.She stared left and right, taking in the scene. The birds, the bees and the humming of electricty as the kettle boiled well past full.She picke
The ticking of the click made the room feel emptier than it was. The clunky ticks and tocks echoed around the circular hall, bouncing off sleek walls and plastic enclosures. Those plastic screens were nine inches thick but reflected like sleek polished glass. Whether that shield of plastic was designed to keep him inside or keep everyone else out had never been explained to Maika."You just sit and watch him," she had been told. That was the sum of her responsibilities. The entire explanation. "Sit in the outer ring. Use your enhanced focus. Don't take your eyes away from him for a second.""Him... Eigen."As they turned onto a glass-lined corridor she squinted. Harsh light shone through the panels of glass, reflecting directly into her retinas. She looked at the floor until the final approach, where the huge mechanical guards lined the walls. They never moved but Maika felt as if they watched. Of course, they were watching. But watching without seeing. The thought gave her chills, li
The ticking of the click made the room feel emptier than it was. The clunky ticks and tocks echoed around the circular hall, bouncing off sleek walls and plastic enclosures. Those plastic screens were nine inches thick but reflected like sleek polished glass. Whether that shield of plastic was designed to keep him inside or keep everyone else out had never been explained to Maika."You just sit and watch him," she had been told. That was the sum of her responsibilities. The entire explanation. "Sit in the outer ring. Use your enhanced focus. Don't take your eyes away from him for a second.""Him... Eigen."As they turned onto a glass-lined corridor she squinted. Harsh light shone through the panels of glass, reflecting directly into her retinas. She looked at the floor until the final approach, where the huge mechanical guards lined the walls. They never moved but Maika felt as if they watched. Of course, they were watching. But watching without seeing. The thought gave her chills, li