Myra started her tale from where it all began for all of us here, albeit in different ways—with her sister, Kelsey. She admitted to Deen that her story about Kelsey's terminal illness was a lie, profusely apologizing for it, and explained that their parents' membership in an Adumbrae cult might be the cause of her sister’s seeding. And because of Kelsey's condition, Myra accepted Dario's offer to join his group and Meld with an artificial Core in return for a supply of Suppressors.
"Dario and the Professor may have kidnapped Kelsey," revealed Myra, intently peering at Deen through her curtain of blue hair.
Deen gasped in shock, her golden locks shimmering as she lurched in her seat. "What?! I-I don't understand. Why Dario? Didn't the 2Ms take Kelsey? They also sent someone to kill Erind and me. Cleaning up witnesses of her transformation is my guess."
Myra subtly grimaced when Deen brought up the 'mysterious' person who attacked us at Sanders Mall. "Yes, my first thought was also the 2Ms," she said with an edge to her voice. Our eyes met. I was tempted to smirk at her because, technically, she suspected us first. She quickly looked away. "But I found a note handwritten by Kelsey in her locker that made me think it was Dario and the Professor.”
She explained that the Professor had given Kelsey a sort of concentrated Suppressor that worked for several hours longer than the normal one. Her sister had taken it on the day she disappeared so she shouldn't have begun to turn into an inhuman form the time we met her at the law school cafeteria. It was either an intentionally ineffective Suppressor or somebody administered a Diluter to her.
"Dario and the Professor must have a hand in it," Myra insisted. "There's no one else! They're...they're part of a secret organization. These artificial Cores, Suppressors, Diluters...everything. We're guinea pigs in a secret experiment."
She repeated to Deen the things she had explained to me last week. Stuff about the Suppressor's almost miraculous ability to suppress the powers of artificial Corebrings like them and Adumbrae—super emphasis on the latter one—and yet we hadn't heard anything about it. All countries should be working to develop this fucking thing to become a cure. Given the value of the Suppressors and Diluters, it should’ve raised eyebrows that the Professor could easily supply them with dozens of vials if his story that he was just a rogue scientist aiding a ragtag band of randos was true.
"I see why you're saying that they're experimenting on us," Deen said, her forehead wrinkled in deep thought.
"And that's not all," Myra said. Next, she brought up the disappearance of various evidence related to us, like parts of video recordings from Eve on the night of the raid got cut if we were in them.
As the two of them talked, I eyed the bowl of ice cream, waiting to pounce at the right time. The hot La Esperanza weather was doing a good job melting it. In the valley surrounded by the mounds of pistachio, buttered pecan, and mint chocolate chip ice cream was a pool where the three flavors swirled together. I wasn't too keen on tasting the mixture, preferring the individual flavors, but I had no choice because of Rule #10.
I dipped my spoon into the middle of the bowl. Deen and Myra stopped their intense chat and stared at me.
"Just pretending we're normal girls innocently enjoying a cold dessert," I said. I raised my spoon, encouraging them to continue eating too. They chuckled, breaking the serious atmosphere of their conversation.
It didn't take much for Deen to be convinced that everything was not as it seemed. Perhaps it wasn't that easy to notice while in the thick of it, but once she took a step back and analyzed the situation, it became clear that we were being manipulated by…someone. The stupid balaclava masks weren't much of a disguise if up against the technological capabilities of the BID, it was a wonder none of Dario's group had been caught—they had been a thorn on the 2Ms side long before Deen and I showed up.
“And that’s not all,” Myra said. “Dario also ordered us to capture Erind so he could wipe her mind.”
“What?! He promised me he wouldn’t do that.”
“Why do you think we were at the docks? We were trailing Erind. I guess we were lucky to be there, yeah, but Dario was planning to break his promise to you that time.”
The expression of anger on Deen’s face was something I didn’t expect her capable of making. “And to think I trusted him,” she whispered, more to herself.
"Deen, I think it's time for me to say my piece," I said, waving my spoon at her. "Myra and I...we have decided to work together. If she's right that Dario took her sister, she'll need help to fight him someday, and she had no one else to turn to—not Everett, not Reo, and also definitely not you back then.
“As for me, obviously, I'll become Dario's enemy if ever he finds out about my secret. My choices were either to just sit this one out and try to survive on my own as an Adumbrae, or join Myra's side. In return, Myra and Johann will also help me, like Myra teaching me to fight and, as you know, Johann faking my test results. Like Myra, I really don't have anyone to turn to."
"But now you also have me," Deen said, her face full of conviction. "I promise—"
Fucking Deen, ruining my speech when I'm not done yet! I puffed myself and talked over her, "Even if Myra won't give me anything in return, I'll still help find and save Kelsey. Just because I'm...I'm an Adumbrae, doesn't mean I'm evil, although everyone thinks that way. I want to prove to myself that I can do good in my state." And there, my speech was done. I locked eyes with Deen, hinting that she could now speak.
"That's...that's so inspiring." She placed her clasped hands near her chest. "I know deep in my heart that you're a good person."
"Deen, helping an Adumbrae isn't what you signed up for when you Melded with an artificial Core. I'll completely understand if you don't—"
"Erind!" Myra and I leaned back, weirded out by Deen's sudden outburst. "What are you talking about?" she demanded, her eyes intensely glaring at me. "You know I'm on your side. I don't care if you're an Adumbrae. I'm on the side of good, and it is good to help my best friend." Facing Myra, Deen added, "It’s also the side of good to save Kelsey. After all, she's my classmate and I can also say friend, though we've only talked a few times. And I will not stand for anyone getting experimented on, be it Kelsey, or us."
"Thank you, Deen. That means a lot." Myra's voice cracked from emotions. She noticed it and blushed, looking away. "I...um, it's just I didn't expect anyone else to help me," she continued with a firmer tone, putting up a tough facade.
The three of us sat in awkward silence for a few seconds, staring at the bowl of ice cream which had melted halfway.
I exaggeratedly exhaled. "Phew, glad everything proceeded smoothly. So now, we're a team." Deen and Myra nodded, murmuring their agreement. I stretched out my hand to the middle of the table, my palm facing downward over the ice cream bowl. I nudged my head toward it, inviting them to put their hands on it. "We should have a team name or something?"
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Deen quickly placed her hand over mine. "Since there’s the 2Ms, we can be the 3Bs. Black, Blonde, and Blue."
"3Bs? Black, blonde—oh, our hair colors?" Myra sheepishly grinned as she shyly joined our team's hand-stack. She was trying to hide her happiness, and possibly also relief, that Deen came over to our side, but I could see it in her eyes and her uplifted cheeks in mid-smile.
"And..." I lowered my hand, theirs above mine, and threw our hand stack upwards. "Go team 3Bs!"
Deen made cheering noises and enthusiastically clapped. Myra just scratched the side of her neck in embarrassment, unsure of what to do. A Cindy's employee fixing the umbrellas a few tables away frowned at us. Three guys seated inside the restaurant, on the other side of the glass wall nearest us, also stared, mostly looking at Deen.
Myra also noticed them. She huffed, "Just focus on eating, you creepy fucks," as she flipped them off with both hands. They couldn’t hear her, but her message was clear. They grudgingly faced a different direction. “Damn right, look away!”
Was she normally this brash or was she sort of being overprotective to show Deen her gratitude for committing to help her? Either way, I felt like she reacted a bit on the extreme side.
Deen seemed to think the same. "No need to get so worked up, Myra," she said. "They're not doing anything weird." Nonetheless, she combed her hair down to hide the side of her face and she shifted the angle of her chair.
Myra clenched her fist. "I'm just so annoyed with guys like that...ugh, whatever." She opened her hand, slowly exhaling. "I'm good now. Anyway, Erind, you mentioned that you don't want Dario to know you're going to Vegas. What’s up with that?"
"Is there something wrong?" Deen said in a worried voice.
"I think Dario might know soon I'm Blanchette."
"What makes you say that?"
“This is the reason I want the three of us to meet.” First, I recounted to Myra about my fight against the 2Ms, and that I was forced to transform into Blanchette, then my giant werewolf form right in the middle of the city. Next, I told her about Deen rescuing me.
"The traffic cams," Myra said, quickly understanding what I was getting at.
“Wait!” Deen raised her hand like she was reciting in class. “I don’t get it.”
"The people behind Dario, whoever they are, they're embedded in law enforcement and would surely see my giant werewolf becoming undone by Auron's power."
"You were wearing a mask," she pointed out. "With just the street cams, they won't have seen our faces.
"What about after that?"
"After? I was careful—"
"It's easy to trace the movements of people with the cameras lining the streets," I said. "They don't have to see our faces, they just need to spot the same clothes or even just the body shape." I held up one finger. "Imagine this is unconscious me after fighting the Adumbrae of the 2Ms." I raised another finger. "And this is you saving me." I paired my two fingers and moved them across the air, symbolizing the two of us traveling. "We entered a building and rested for some time."
"Okay? But I also destroyed the security cameras inside that office while I waited for you to regain consciousness."
"And then we went out," I said. I wiggled my two fingers. "It's still the two of us, there's no mistaking it. We're like the only two people there. After that, we went to—"
"The city hall," Deen whispered, her eyes narrowing as she gradually figured out the glaring problem. "The traffic cams recorded where we went. Then we snuck into the city hall’s parking area where I hid you in my car while I went to find my sister."
"And when you came back, we drove back to—"
"My house."
"Oh man, that’s a concern," Myra groaned. "'Concern' is actually putting it lightly. Damn. More like a giant pain in the ass."
"Do you think they can trace us all the way from..." Deen trailed off, already knowing the answer to her own question. "They can."
I nodded. "This powerful group combs through all sorts of evidence gathered by law enforcement, no doubt including street cam footage, videos from building security cameras—"
"Also parking area cameras," contributed Deen, "like those in city hall."
"And scrubs them clean to make sure our little group is safe," I said. "Well, they'll see that it was you who carried me. They'll keep you safe...I think. The problem is, it’s easy to put together that I’m the infamous Red Hood. It’s either me or your sister; the security footage of city hall will rule her out."
Myra said, “So that's why you want to leave La Esperanza."
"Exactly. They'll have a ton of stuff to go through. I'm sure it'll be some time until they'll discover my secret. And after that...I'm not sure what they'll do. Maybe...maybe they'll, um..." I looked at her.
"Maybe they'll also take you like what happened to Kelsey," she said with an understanding nod.
"I-I'm not sure what my fate afterward will be. I'll prepare to hide in Vegas. That city is way bigger than La Esperanza. I’m also more familiar with it since we did live there for some time. My family also has a few friends there who I can ask for help. Deen, you can help me prepare to disappear…and you can go back—"
She slammed the table with her palm. “I’m not going to leave you all alone! We’re in this together.”
“You don’t have to leave your life too,” I said, in a fake attempt to dissuade her. But Deen should be smart enough to know this wasn’t only about me.
“What will they think when they see me helping you?” she said. “They’re not just going to let me be.”
Eh? She’s going down this route? And here I was, assuming Deen got everything figured out. She wasn’t as intelligent as I thought her to be. Although to be fair, I only thought about this stuff last night as I brainstormed instead of sleeping. It was going to be fucking fun and full of drama when Deen would eventually realize that I was going to blame her for having my cover blown!
“I don’t know what they’ll do to me for hiding an Adumbrae,” Deen went on, oblivious of my plans for her. “But I’m sure it’s not good. Maybe Dario will attack me.”
“Um…um, that’s not, uh…” I intentionally faltered in my speech as if I was trying to come up with an excuse for her but couldn’t. My trump card of blaming her wasn’t needed for now. “I’m fine on my own, really.”
“Erind, I’ll be with you,” Deen said. “How many times do I have to tell you this?”
As much as I hated the thought, Deen should stay with me. For her safety—yeah, sure there’s that—but especially for my own too. I wouldn’t want her pitted against me. And now, more than ever, with the prospect of Dario’s secret organization figuring out my secret, I needed all the allies and advantages I could gather. Deen would definitely help me big time when the time of reckoning came, not only with her power but also with money.
“And me too!” Myra chimed in. “I’m not going to Vegas now, I mean. I’m going to stay here and observe how things go, investigate Dario with Johann’s help maybe, see what he knows. I’ll alert you if something bad is coming your way. And if you need help, just call me. It’s like a four, maybe five-hour drive to Vegas, but I’ll be there as fast as I can. If they come to get you because you’re an Adumbrae, maybe we can capture them and they’ll lead us to Kelsey.”
“Everything suddenly became so serious,” I said with a weak smile. “I…I don’t know what will happen in the future. Whoever is behind Dario, they’re a big organization—.”
“This means we need more help,” Deen said.
“Who?” asked Myra. “There’s no one else. Fat chance we can convince Everett and Reo. Or like you have some family connections or something?”
Deen chewed her tongue as she pondered what to tell us next. “Family connections, no. I’m thinking we ask help from Adumbrae.”
“Adumbrae? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’ve met a true Adumbrae who might help us. His name is Hedley Kow.”