Hugh awoke to the sound of an argument between a very drunk Arfus and a very sober Lukas. They were standing next to a large table down a side tunnel, shouting loudly.

“Don’t you dare!” Hugh heard Lukas shout in a sharp, fierce tone before an object was thrown onto the floor. “We need you Arfus. It is working this time.”

“It is not working this time! You’re little friend is wandering around these dark caverns like a child making small talk and trying to get people to like him. It will never do what we want it to! Your plan never works! They need to be exposed to the world! They need to be exposed to reality! They need to know what their reality is!”

“You know we can’t tell them,” Lukas boomed in a harsh voice that scared Hugh, who was making his way towards the side tunnel. “Don’t do this. Hell will come for us all but not like this!”

“I was sent into the depths of hell when I first followed your orders,” Arfus said, now in a rage. “I was blind. I was blind to you, Lukas. You are twisted beyond your own belief.” Hugh couldn’t believe what Arfus was saying, what was so bad about Lukas? He wandered about this as he came to the tunnel entrance.

“I became twisted long ago, I’m just trying to make things right.”

“No. No. You are the evil in this. I am not throwing any more husks into the docks for you! You can throw me in instead!” Arfus yelled and he made a leap for a syringe. Lukas reached it first and held it tightly in his hand.

“No!” Arfus screamed, “Let me have it! I would rather die than consciously mutilate any more husks for you! I am not going to be part of creating innocent lives that you kill, when they disobey you! I will not make them conscious! I refuse! I will not cause any more husks to live through unbelievable agony! I refuse!” Arfus collapsed onto the ground and began weeping wildly. Lukas just looked at him before he felt the hairs raise on the back of his neck. Turning around his eyes met Hugh’s.

Lukas stepped towards Hugh but Hugh was already running before Lukas had a chance to speak.

“Hugh!” Lukas shouted running after him, the syringe still gripped in his hand. Hugh ran as far as he could, “Hugh!” he heard Lukas shout behind him. Hugh wrenched open a door and climbed inside the small room. Lukas forced his way in and the door closed them in together.

“Hugh.” Lukas said panting.

“Don’t you dare!” Hugh screamed. “You did this to me!”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Did what?” Lukas said innocently.

“You made me this way!”

“Arfus did this you,” Lukas corrected him, his tone changing. “To help you. To help all of you.”

“All of us?” Hugh’s voice raised in volume and the anger became more intense, “You still think of me as a husk! That’s all I am to you. An empty body that you used to create a mind inside, a mind that would be stupid enough to trust you.”

“Hugh.”

“Don’t call me that! I am a husk. A mutilated husk that you twisted and used to do your commands. Arfus felt pity, remorse, pain, sorrow, empathy. You don’t feel anything! You’re the husk not me!”

“Yes!” Lukas shouted back, “You are a husk that I can turn back into an empty shell with this single injection.” Lukas threatened Hugh, revealing the syringe in his hand. Hugh tried to knock it out of his hand but Lukas slammed Hugh’s head into a metal duct, sending him crashing to the floor. “One shot of this and you’ll die. Nothing will be able to bring you back. You’ll become a malfunctioned husk that will be found one day at the bottom of the docks, along with all the rest. Is that what you want?” Hugh lay on the floor breathing heavily. “I need you to trust me Hugh. I need you to destroy them.” Hugh turned to look at Lukas.

“Destroy them?” He questioned Lukas.

“For what they have done,” Lukas answered.

“For what they’ve done? Look what you’ve done. Look what you’ve become Lukas. You hold that syringe in you’re hand talking to me like you’re the good guy. You made me like this. You caused me all that pain!”

“We made you alive, and we got you out!” Lukas shouted at him.

“That doesn’t excuse what you’ve done. You’re as bad as the immortals, the people in charge, the council, whoever they are!” Hugh stood up, keeping his distance from Lukas but keeping his eyes fixed upon him.

“I need you to destroy this place Hugh,” Lukas said calmly and reasonably. “Not just this room, this building or this city. I need you to destroy this world. The world of the immortals. The world that we have created. When most of the human race died long ago, we were meant to die with them.”

“They injected me to stop my nervous system from forming. You caused it to regrow again but they kept destroying it and you kept rebuilding it. It was agony. Agony that you caused me.”

“The Sarora: they can see people’s auras. People’s living consciousness. They describe them as being a burning orange colour that moves and flickers as the people do. Constantly surrounding them, consuming them. And if there ever was a God he wanted us to die long ago because those auras aren’t living consciousness. They are the eternal flames of hell and that is where we are going for the things that we have done.” Lukas looked at Hugh with tears in his eyes and held the needle out towards him. “Kill me Hugh. Kill me as long as you promise to kill them too.”

Hugh walked towards Lukas and took the syringe out of his outstretched hand. He folded his hands around it and everything within Hugh felt numb. Lukas collapsed with a loud, hard thud not feeling the blow that knocked him out. As Lukas lay unconscious on the metal floor, Hugh knelt down and drove the needle straight into the back of his neck.

The metal door was closed and locked shut: Inside the room Lukas was dead, leaving a husk behind.