literature

Kismet - Chapter 5

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In his dream, Todd stood in his father’s office, barely tall enough to see over the desk. The room was grand, big and wall to wall with windows overlooking the ocean. He realized it wasn’t a dream, but a memory of their shore-line house Todd had grown up in. Files lay open on his desk, and he boosted himself up onto the cushiony chair with some effort, finally hauling his small body onto it. He sat there content and swinging his legs back and forth mindlessly as children do, until something on his father’s desk caught his eye. His own name. Todd pulled the chair closer to the desk and peeked at the file.

‘Experiment 00-R101; Todd Thorn Hawtree. Test results: Positive, condition peaked.’ The words swam before his eyes but they were foggy in his brain and soon he could hear his mother calling him for supper, loud and clear. He hopped off the chair, but before he could make it out the door to the dining room, it flew shut with a jarring slam that jolted him right out of his dream.

Todd woke up with sweat beading down his forehead, sprawled on the floor where he had curled up for the night. His eyes strained in the darkness to make out anything. As they adjusted to the lighting, he saw the bodies of many others all over the room in various sleeping positions. Groggy, he sat up, wondering what had slammed to make him wake up. He could hear footsteps, and decided one of the survivors he was with must have gotten up to go to the bathroom. They echoed through the hall, loud and a muttering voice followed them. Annoyance prickled his skin at the volume of their voice. He wondered why they didn’t have the decency to show any courtesy to those sleeping. Laying back onto the floor he curled up and closed his eyes once more, in an attempt to fall back asleep.

‘WUMP’ the house whirred to life as a loud fan began to sound from the basement, churning fast and every light was suddenly on, the sound vibrating the room and the brightness causing everyone to wake with confusion and squinting eyes.  

“Wahhh!!! What’s going on!” , “I thought there was no power?” Voices slurred from sleep rose up in indignation all around the room as the fourteen messy haired teenagers sat bolt upright in their makeshift beds all around Todd. Wait... all fourteen of them were here, so who the hell was walking through the hall? He stood up and motioned with a finger to his lips to be quiet, moving to the kitchen and grasping a knife.

“What the hell do you need that for?” Cherish hissed in a loud whisper, her eyes wide at the weapon.
“Someone’s in the house.” He mouthed, creeping towards the hall slowly. At the end of it was a door that led to a near empty basement. He had seen it earlier when they had first entered and explored.

“No shit. There’s fourteen of us in this damn vicinity.” Destrey was smoothing his hair so it fell over the bandages that covered his eye, rolling his other one at Todd.

“He means beside us smartass.” Cherish elbowed him in the ribs, standing up to tread lightly behind Todd with curious eyes.  As he neared the door, he could hear footsteps approaching as they came up the stairs, nearing the door. He poised his knife, ready to strike as the door swung open.

“YEEEEEAWHH?!!!” A beast appeared from behind the doors, making a strange scream. Todd scrambled backwards, falling on his butt and dropping the knife on the floor. On closer inspection, it wasn’t a beast. The person before them had on a long robe with massive sleeves and a very strange beak-like mask with large lenses that looked like they came from a gas mask. The beak was made from hard leather, and many swirls and dot designs in a darker brown covered the surface.  The front half of the robe was tucked into patchy brown pants, which were in turn tucked into tall, Robin Hood looking boots. A hood covered the head of the human who stood before them. Really, the getup looked very old fashioned, something from like a thousand years ago, nothing Todd had ever seen in real life. His hands smacked the ground until one hit the handle of the knife, gripping it and holding it out in front of him, but not yet regaining his footing.

“I can’t believe you’re here so soon! I have nothing prepared!” A muffled voice came from behind the mask, it sounded higher pitched but not distinctly feminine. Still not lowering his guard, Todd rose. Behind him he could almost hear the rest of the group holding their breath, unsure what to do. The stranger lifted their hands to their head, and Todd jabbed the knife at the air.

“Don’t move!” He yelled, his voice quivering slightly. He could feel Cherish and Destrey move beside him, and the others slowly crowding into the hallway, straining to get a glimpse of this person.

“Can’t I take my mask off? It’s rather hot inside.” The voice came again, laced with slight annoyance. “And could ya put the knife away pretty boy? I ain’t gonna do nothin’ to ya.” Todd waivered briefly before lowering it, still clenching it in his fist as the hooded figure pushed the mask up so that the beak was vertical to reveal a face, one that was dirty and rugged but definitely female. She also removed her hood, and brilliant red hair stuck up in every which way, springing out from under its cover.  

“Why are you here!” Todd recognized the voice as Alexxandria’s and he turned his head to face her as she spoke.

“I live here?” The girl’s voice spoke back and she rolled her eyes as if they were expected to know this was her residence.  

“Then how come you weren’t here when we came in? Why is it you come ‘home’ in the dead of night?” Alexxandria’s eyes were glowing with fear, but her voice did not betray her.

“I had to see if the experiments worked of course! I took a little trip to get some materials for myself and then well... more or less see if I could survive the radiation with what meager dosage I have in my body!” Multiple pairs of eyes stared at her in confusion as she gave an ‘explanation’ that literally meant nothing to any of them.  

“Could you actually say something we can understand? Dosage? Experiments?” Lacy spoke from the back of the group, and everyone nodded.

“What do you mean you don’t understand?... Oh fuck, don’t tell me they didn’t tell you?” The girl started to laugh loudly, almost insanely, her voice filling the room with these twisted giggles. He raised the knife once more and her laughter grew before she settled down slightly. “What kind of fucking idiot throws their child into an abandoned world without even telling them? Jesus Christ this is pathetic that I’m going to have to explain everything, I’m not even getting paid to do this.” She rambled on, her voice rattling with humor, though no one else in the room thought it was funny, or even knew what she was talking about.

“Who are you?” Todd spoke again, stabbing the knife in the air again to emphasize his words. Her face contorted into a smile from its open mouthed laugh.

“Bellatrighx. That’s B-e-double L-a-t-r-i-g-h-x!” She sung, as if it even mattered. “And I already know who you are! Well... not as individuals...” She shook her head, furrowing her brow before clapping her hands together with a toothy grin. “Why don’t you introduce yourselves! No wait... let me guess! Let me guess!” Bellatrighx hopped up and down in place like a little child.

“How do you know who we are? Explain yourself!” He walked towards her, holding the knife at her gut level, his face bared in a snarl.

“Todd, stop it!” Alexxandria cried, trying to push through to get to him, but Destrey and Cherish formed a wall, their eyes trained on the interrogation.

“Your files, of course. You’re a rebel aren’t you, pretty boy. I can tell. My daddy worked for yours, and I just happen to be a good hacker. I was able to view everything on all of you.” She flung her arms out before staring down at the sharp object pressed into her stomach with a raised eyebrow. She took a hand and moved it aside. “Oh please. Now let me guess your name. And I want to know which ones the twins are!” She craned her neck to see into the small crowd, peering over it on her tiptoes. Todd felt a hard knot form in his stomach. Her father was part of the government? She knew there were twins... she really did view their files... but why? He snuck a glance at Alexxandria and Sam, whose faces were masks. He wondered how they felt currently.

“How do you know who my father is?” He dropped the knife and she smiled slightly, her arms crossed.

“Oh that was an easy one. Your family name is Hawthorne, the family colour is black. There’s only two raven headed kiddo’s in the room, but you have your father’s eyes. I can tell. It couldn’t be that one.” She glanced over to Destrey and he grimaced. “So you must be Todd Hawthorne! I must say, for being son of the president, you sure are feisty.” He could hear the gasps at the knowledge of who his father was and the eyes trained on him, boring into his skin. He ignored them as he nodded at Bellatrighx.

“You’re right, I am Todd.” He tried to hide his shock at her deductions. She nodded proudly.

“Now.. the twins... I think their family colour was... uh.. green? Yes! Green!” She smirked, her eyes settling on Sam and Alexxandria easily, before she pushed through the group, making her way to them. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’ve read so much about you! You two are held in so much esteem! Alexxandria-Ruby and Samuel, am I right?” Her smile was kinder, but filled with a hunger as she clasped their hands in hers, as if she was meeting a celebrity. She removed her hands and straightened her mask that perched atop of her head before turning to the rest of them who she hadn’t really bothered to acknowledge up to this time. “Come with me! Please... my uh... lab I guess is down in the basement! I can explain everything there; I’ll bring up your files on the computer! Since I guess no one’s parents even bothered to explain to them what the hell was going on?” She muttered to herself, heading down the stairs before glancing up. Todd shared a look with Mallory, who shrugged and trudged ahead, down the stairs. Many footsteps echoed through the corridor of stairs as they descended. The loud sound that had woken them up earlier grew, the vibrations strong and soon he realized it came from a huge generator that had previously been covered by a large blanket that no one had bothered to remove.

The basement still remained empty, but Bellatrighx shifted a stone panel in the floor to reveal more stairs, finally coming down to a large open bomb shelter looking place. It had a doomsday sort of feel to it, but it was fairly roomy, large enough to fit all of them in semi-comfortably. There were large plush couches and five giant monitors on one wall, a large keyboard that faced them and a wheeled office chair which Bellatrighx had now made herself comfortable in, spinning around gleefully. There was a large metal door in the corner of the room, which seemed to loom ominously. Todd eyed it suspiciously.

“That’s the door to my work-room! I do all my work in there mostly, except this stuff!” She grinned, before spinning to the computer and typing with insane speed, the keys clacking loudly in the room. Her eyes glowed brightly, illuminated by the screen’s light. The government seal popped up on her screen with a coded password, which she quickly plunked in, getting her into the system. She located the files she needed, which were labeled under something Todd immediately recognized and made him feel uneasy.

“Ahh, here we are. Experment 00-R1.” She prattled on, opening the file where multiple other sub files were suddenly revealed, each with numbers on them. “So I suppose I should maybe explain to you why you’re even alive while everyone is dead, dontcha think?” Her mouth split into a devilish smile and she slid her mask completely off, setting it on the desk beside her, smoothing her hair down and spinning her chair around to face the teenagers before her.  

“It all began approximately 18 years ago...” She began.
This one is a bit longer & more interesting hhh
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