The group was arranged throughout the dorm living room much like they had been just two nights ago, preparing to record the blank 34. The only notable difference this time was that Chase was spinning a pocket watch on a chain rather than holding a picture frame, but otherwise the setup was almost identical. It was also a good hour before the clock would strike 12:26, but the anxiety of knowing an attempted abduction was coming had prevented any of them from sleeping and they’d settled in to wait.
Chase was definitely feeling that heady mixture of anticipation and dread, and he could see mostly the latter emotion written on the faces of his friends. Jess seemed to be holding up the best, clearly nervous but holding on to some core of strength that was letting her face it without flinching. Tom’s stoic mien looked a bit more strained than usual, but the set of his jaw made it clear that he wouldn’t go down without a fight. Ellie betrayed her nerves in small ways, literally twiddling her thumbs and tapping her feet to some unknown rhythm. Kayla just looked like she was even more done with the world’s shit than she usually was. It was Miles who looked the most pale and drawn, so it was Miles that Chase focused on. Specifically, his arms.
“Hey Miles.” Chase waited until his fellow student’s eyes rose to meet his own. “I’ve been wondering, but there was never a good time to ask. You don’t exactly seem like the tattoo type, so what’s with the full sleeves? They’re awesome, but it’s a bit of a jarring contrast.”
Miles blinked, then looked down at his arms. “I’ve never told you?”
“Dude, we barely knew each other before we got trapped here. Still don’t know each other super well.”
“Fair enough. It’s kind of a long story.”
Chase gestured broadly at the room and held up his pocket watch. “We’ve got time.”
“Alright. Well, I was an only child growing up. Just me, my mom, and my stepdad. I didn’t even know there was a step involved until I was ten and they sat me down to explain. Apparently my mom found out that my bio-dad was cheating on her and they divorced when I was one. I kinda just shrugged and moved on, cause my stepdad was pretty great and it wasn’t like I had memories of anybody else. Then one January there was a knock at the door.
It wasn’t my bio-dad, that was for sure. It was a kid maybe a year younger than me who said his name was Neil. Christmas at his house that year had been awkward, as his mom was big on genealogy and had gotten him one of those ancestry matching kits.”
“Oh no.” Kayla lamented.
“Yeah, you can see where this is going. Bio-dad had remarried his mistress, who apparently never knew he was married in the first place. She was really confused when this thing said Neil had a half-brother on the other side of the city. He tracked us down, partly as a way to get out of the way of the fights that his parents were having now. You could definitely tell we were related, he looked just like me but with darker hair. It was definitely awkward at first, but he was determined to have some kind of relationship with me despite just sharing the same cheating scumbag as a DNA donor.
We didn’t have much in common. I was the shy, nerdy science kid who loved comic books and video games, and he was an outgoing athlete and artist. I thought he might drop it after his home life calmed down, but he kept coming around and calling just to talk and I guess he just wore me down. He was that kind of guy, relentlessly positive and absolutely determined in his goals. I started going to some of his soccer games, and he’d apparently bragged to all his friends about his genius older half-brother. For a year, we kept getting closer, hanging out whenever we could. He got me out of my shell, introduced me to a whole new friend group. We’d basically become best friends.
He invited me to a party one night. It wasn’t really my scene, but I went along anyway. It was the first time I’d ever gotten drunk. Neil was the life of the party, always had a kind word for everybody. He showed me some designs he’d been working on, ones he wanted to turn into tattoos once he turned eighteen. I recognized the style as inspired by some comic books I’d recommended to him, and he just grinned and said of course his genius brother was gonna be represented in the art he’d wear for the rest of his life. It was the best night of my life, until it wasn’t.
The cops showed up, noise complaint. Neil led me out the back door as we ran for it, his car was parked a couple streets away. He wanted me to drive since I’d mostly sobered up by that point, but I was nervous. I hated driving at night, I’d never driven his car, I was scared I was still too drunk… stupid excuses. He just laughed and said it was all good, and he got behind the wheel. I never saw what hit us. I just woke up the next day in the hospital with a broken leg and a dead brother.”
Miles paused to wipe his eyes, and Chase could feel his own tearing up in sympathy. “I retreated into a shell after that, blaming myself. If I’d been brave enough to drive, if I’d convinced him to call a cab or something, he’d still be here. It wasn’t until his funeral that I remembered the art he’d shown me that night. I asked his mom about it, and for the next year we met up to go over the design and consulted with local tattoo shops. The day I turned eighteen, she went with me and we got them done. Neither of us are tattoo people, but Neil would have loved it. Now I have a permanent reminder of my best friend, my brother, and a reminder of what happens when I let my fear make my decisions.”
A heavy silence hung over the room as the group digested Miles’s story. Chase had just been hoping for something to distract from the anxiety of waiting and had inadvertently stumbled onto a minefield. He opened his mouth to try to offer some words of comfort, but Kayla beat him to the punch, enveloping Miles in a hug. The thin man looked perplexed for a moment before returning it, wrapping his tattooed arms around her.
“He would be proud of you.” Chase managed to get out. “Hold onto those memories. That’s what these fucking parasites want to steal from you. But we’re not gonna let them take Neil from you. No chance in hell.”
Miles sniffled as Kayla detached from the hug, but gave a firm nod. Despite the redness of his eyes, they were much firmer now. Chase glanced down at his pocket watch, showing only a few minutes until the blank 34 would start.
“We’re almost there. Everybody remember the plan?” Chase asked. Miles was the first to nod, followed by Kayla and Jess. Tom cracked his knuckles, and Ellie heaved out a sigh before nodding grimly. It was a long shot, a plan thrown together on assumptions and hope and guesswork and a little help from Echo. It was the best they could do, and Chase hoped it would be enough.
The clock ticked down, and once more the world was put on pause at 12:26. Exactly thirty seconds later, the dorm door swung open to reveal the surprisingly short silhouette of Dr. Emily Redmond. Chase knew she wasn’t the tallest woman, but it somehow still came as a shock that a woman with such a towering reputation had such a diminutive figure. Her piercing gray eyes took in the room in an instant, and she immediately narrowed them at the sight of Chase spinning his pocket watch on its chain, grinning like he didn’t have a care in the world.
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“Come into my parlor, said the fly to the spider. Hm. That saying doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well when it’s reversed. Ah well, can’t win them all.” Chase shrugged, projecting nonchalance. To Dr. Redmond’s credit, the surprise on her face was quickly smoothed over in favor of an assessing neutrality.
“Curious.” Her voice unsurprisingly matched perfectly with the one Chase had overheard earlier that day. “No one of your species should be able to react in this maintenance interval.”
“What can you do? My mom always said I was special.”
“I’m sure she did.” Dr. Redmond said dryly, moving to stand across from Chase and regarding him like a particularly interesting if vaguely irritating insect. “Fascinating. Congratulations, you are worthy of further study.”
“At least buy a guy dinner first.” Chase snarked.
“You’re going to make me ask, aren’t you?”
“Of course, this is a once in a lifetime chance. I’m not gonna pass that up.”
“Very well. How are you doing this?”
“Ah, that’s the stuff.” Chase raised his other hand, phone clearly recording video. “Definitely goes on the highlight reel, lowly college student outsmarting famous lab director. You won’t believe what happens next!”
Dr. Redmond furrowed her brow. “Is there a point to this drivel?”
“Maybe the drivel is the point. It’s about the journey, not the destination.”
“How asinine. Without the destination, there would be no journey.”
Chase opened his mouth to protest, thought for a moment, then slowly closed it with a frown. “That’s a distressingly fair point.”
Dr. Redmond simply stared at him for a moment, dissecting him with her eyes. They flicked from his face to his phone to the pocket watch he was still fiddling with before settling on staring him down with renewed intensity. “I see it now. You’re simply stalling for time, delaying the inevitable.”
“Is it working?” Chase asked hopefully.
“Time is not a concern. Your tactics are constricted by the limitations of your perspective. I could open your mind for you, show you the universe as you’ve never seen before. You could finally be a part of something greater than yourself. You could be part of a legacy that will never be forgotten.” Dr. Redmond’s lips curled into a predatory smile. “I know you must have so many questions. I can provide all those answers and more.”
“First of all, bold of you to assume there’s anything greater than myself, I’m pretty awesome. Second of all, how often does that pitch actually work? It has so many ominous overtones, you should really work on that. Coming across a little heavy-handed.”
“I admit, you present a unique challenge.” Dr. Redmond tilted her head, as if listening to something in the distance. “You’re curious, there’s no doubt about that. You want to find the narrative that ties everything together. Yet you have limits on the questions you’re willing to ask and the actions you’re willing to take. How… counterproductive. You realize that without these arbitrary limitations, you could accomplish your goals much faster, yes?”
“But would I be satisfied with something quick and easy?” Chase shot back.
“Satisfaction is irrelevant, the goal would be achieved.”
“Man,” Chase sighed. “You would fit right in with modern corporate culture. Ever considered a career change? Feels like you’re already most of the way to being a bank manager: obsessed with efficiency, uncaring about anyone’s satisfaction, good at suckering people with speeches about corporate culture and legacy…”
“You are trying to distract me again.” Dr. Redmond frowned.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You’re still getting distracted.”
“Very well then. I’ll make this simple. For every pointless aside you spout, I hurt one of your friends.” She raised her hand towards Ellie as it began glowing with the same aurora colors as the barrier encasing the lab. She turned a victorious smirk towards Chase, who kept his expression placid and quirked an eyebrow.
“Torture, very original. Points for cruelty, minus points for originality. Honestly, I expect better of today’s sinister conspiracies. No innovation anymore, the whole genre is getting stale.” Chase gave an exaggerated yawn. “Well, go on then.”
The smirk melted off her face, replaced by naked confusion. “I can tell how much you care for your companions here. Yet you want me to harm them?”
“Pretty sure you’re going to harm them no matter what I say or when I say it. I just want the satisfaction of you having to do it and not even getting anything useful out of it.” Chase tapped his temple. “You’re not the only one who can analyze their opponent.”
“True.” She lowered her hand and the smirk returned. “Yet you give away more than you think you do. Being utterly unsurprised at the casual threat of violence and the capability to carry it out with exotic abilities? You know who I really am.”
“Yup.” Chase said, popping the p as obnoxiously as he could. “You’re on a roll, would you care to guess again?”
Annoyance began creeping into her expression. “You have encountered these sorts of abilities before. But the memories I’ve examined tell me they didn’t exist on your world outside of fiction, and fiction would not grant you this sort of comfort. I would say that you have met one of my kind, but all are accounted for… all that I know of, at least.” She narrowed her cold gray eyes at him. “You’ve met a fugitive.”
“Harsh term for the guy. Girl? You lot don’t really have genders, do you?”
“There is no need for such an arbitrary social division among our kind.” She answered coolly.
“Props to y’all for being socially progressive! I mean, lots of negatives in the props department with the whole parasitic devouring thing, but I guess you’re not all bad. Just like ninety-nine percent bad.”
“Enough!” She yelled. Chase smirked, finally having gotten under her skin. “Stephen-”
“It’s Chase.”
“Mr. Adkins.” Her voice was granite, with an ethereal overtone that Chase was sure was some bleedover from Bright. “You are going to tell me what you know, and then I am going to enjoy dissecting that infuriating, feeble construct you call a mind until you are nothing more than an incubator for the least labor stock. You will be aware the entire time, helpless as control is stripped from you little by little, screaming as your mind is flayed into pieces that I will put to more productive use than you ever could.”
“Wow. Hardcore. Major improvement in threat delivery just in the course of this conversation. Bravo!” Chase gave a few golf-claps, still holding the pocket watch in one hand, and took a surreptitious glance at it. Almost time to wrap up.
Dr. Redmond’s gray eyes were now surrounded by glowing, swirling sclera in the same distinctive greens, purples, and blues as her hands had glowed before. Chase could sense what was coming, but met her gaze defiantly anyway.
“Listen, lady.” He began. “Or whatever you are under that shell. We’ve been calling you Bright, but you’re really not, are you? You’re just slightly less dim than the rest of your brethren, and got it into your head that you’re a genius after being a big fish in a small pond. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: your big plan will never work, not because of any technical limitations or anything, but simply because you’re the one leading it. You’re a blunt object, and the instant you go up against something stronger than you are you’ll fold. But you know the best part?” Chase was grinning wildly now. “It doesn’t even have to be something stronger. Just something that can see you coming.”
She let out an inarticulate snarl of rage and twin beams flew from her eyes. Much more energized and refined than Chase’s own light vision from the day before, they seared through the air and straight through Chase’s chest in an instant, immediately sublimating any material they came in contact with. Chase momentarily glanced down at the holes in his chest, then back up at the panting parasite host with a wink.
“Like I said, it doesn’t even have to be something stronger. Just something that can go around you.” He gave a jaunty wave as his body and those of the other students faded away, leaving only the shouts of Dr. Redmond’s rage echoing along the bare walls.