Darkness Fades

Chapter 19

The young woman in the room tells the children that they need to sit back down. I look up at her, expecting to see her eyes filled with hate like the rest of the people in the colony, so I’m surprised when she smiles at me with kindness in her eyes.

Maci grabs my hand and pulls me towards the door. “Come on, Kayla. We need to talk.”

She leads me outside the door and around to the back of the building. There’s an alleyway that is surrounded by walls and the only way out is the way we came in. Then Maci lets go of my hand and starts humming as she skips around in a circle.

“Why did you bring me out here?” I ask her as I look around the empty alley.

“Because I am supposed to.” She shrugs as she kicks at some pebbles on the ground.

As usual, I’m confused at what she’s talking about. “Can you tell me why you’re supposed to?”

“Not yet,” she says. “But soon.”

I sigh. I wish she could just tell us what we’re supposed to do instead of letting us know she knows. Things would be so much simpler. “What were you doing back in that building?”

She stops skipping and her eyes light up with excitement. “That was a school. They teach the children how to read there.”

“They teach people to read here?” I ask, stunned.

She nods her head with enthusiasm. “They teach lots of things Kayla. It’s different from our colony where the Highers are always controlling things and hiding things.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I tell her. “Since they don’t have Highers here.”

The sound of yelling suddenly interrupts us. I wonder if this is why Maci brought me back here, to hear something. The yelling is coming from around the corner, in front of the building. I start to take off to see what the commotion is about, but Maci grabs my arm and draws me back.

“You need to stay here,” she tells me. I shake my head, worried it’s the army or something, and then I begin to pull away. “Kayla, listen to me,” Maci says. “You have to stay here. They’re yelling because of you.”

I listen to the yells and suddenly I comprehend what she is telling me. They want to lock me away because they’re afraid of me.

“They don’t hate you,” she says sadly. “They just don’t understand you. They don’t know how important you are.”

“I hope you’re right,” I mutter, trying to block out the hateful words from the street, but it’s hard.

“I am,” she says simply.

The yelling continues for a while and then their voices suddenly fade. I hear Mathew speak, telling everyone to quiet down.

“We can go out now,” Maci whispers quietly, motioning me to go.

I cautiously make my way back to the front of the building and find Mathew standing on top of the steps of the building. Sylas is standing beside him with his hood remaining over his head because there’s still sunlight. The people in the crowd are all staring at Sylas as if he is some sort of a monster. I can tell by the look in their eyes what they’re feeling. Fear. They want to kill Sylas. And possibly me.

This is bad.

Mathew is trying to calm them down, but the colony members are still uneasy. I take a deep breath and start to walk towards Mathew and Sylas. When I step out from the corner, many people turn in my direction and the crowd begins to murmur again. I ignore their angry looks and walk with my chin held high up the steps and beside Sylas. He glances at me and then discreetly moves his hand over and slips his fingers through mine.

“Everyone needs to calm down. Sylas and Kayla are not responsible for what happened. I wasn’t attacked by them.” Mathew’s voice echoes over the crowd. I wonder what the hell he’s talking about. “Sylas is the one who saved me from Aiden. He went up against his own brother to protect me,” Mathew explains and my eyes widen in shock.

What did I miss?

Sylas must sense my panic because he squeezes my hand, and even though I hate to admit it, it slightly calms me down. Mathew steps down to the bottom of the stairway and into the crowd of people. He immediately gets bombarded with questions about what happened; where the other one is, what he’s going to do about the problem. They look at us every time they say problem and it irks me to my very core.

“What is going on?” I whisper, leaning in towards Sylas.

“I guess Aiden put thoughts into people’s heads and made them do things,” he whispers back. “He tried to get me to attack Mathew, but was surprised when I didn’t respond. When his little gift didn’t work on me, he tried to get me to tell him why. I honestly have no idea why it didn’t work on me, but the next thing I knew, he bit me... He was able to see my thoughts.” He swallows hard with his head bowed down. “He knows that you changed me back, Kayla.”

I notice there are a few drops of blood on his jacket; however the wound on his neck has started to heal, barely two specks.

“And it gets worse,” Sylas continues. “His bite made me black out for a few minutes and that’s when he attacked Mathew. I managed to pull him off before he bit him and then he ran off… with the papers.” He pauses, shaking his head at himself. “I don’t get it… I used to be so much strong than him, but felt so helpless… he took out the guards, too…” He shakes his head again and tips his chin up, keeping his eyes angled from the sun. “He’s different. Stronger than anything I’ve ever come across. I think he might really be working for the Highers.”

I swallow hard, wondering why I felt Monarch lying to Gabrielle when he clearly was telling the truth. The crowd starts to break up and Mathew walks back up the stairs towards us with a strange look on his face that makes me tense even more.

“I think I know the reason he attacked me,” Mathew says as he reaches the top of the stairway and stands in front of us.

“Because of the papers,” I say. “I think that the Highers have him brainwashed somehow.”

Mathew shakes his head. “Not brainwashed.” He pauses, gazing out at the sun descending below the mountains. “Aiden’s changing into a Higher.”

“What!” Sylas and I both cry simultaneously.

Sylas inches closer, anger surfacing in his expression as he dares to look up from the ground just the slightest bit. “How can you be so sure?”

Mathew shuts his eyes, puts his hand into his pockets and then takes a piece of paper out before opening his eyes. “I managed to read quite a bit before he stole the papers… I even had this one in my hand when he attacked me.” He unfolds the paper. “Monarch says on this one that he messed up on subject 409, a boy named Aiden. That he broke the DNA… put too much of injection 7 in him…” He trails off as Sylas and I gape at him, having no idea what he’s talking about. “Right.” He stuffs the paper back into his pocket. “To make a long story short, Kayla is the only perfect soldier. As much as Monarch tried, he couldn’t create anything like her. He had a few failed attempts where he created something else—something almost perfect—yet filled with one flaw, greed. A Higher; and Aiden was one of them he messed up on.”

Sylas lets go of my hand and turns away. As much as the brothers fought, I can tell this is affecting him. He stands there for a moment, and when he looks at me, there’s a hint of sadness on his face, something I’ve never seen on him before. He erases it, though, and then shifts his attention back to Mathew.

“So Aiden stole the papers to prevent you from finding the cure?” he asks, drawing his hood back as the last of the sunlight slips away and the sky turns grey. I can hear faint howling in the distance start. “Does that mean there is no hope for a cure?”

“Not necessarily,” Mathew says, glancing around at the people in the streets rushing inside. “I think I read enough information before the papers were taken. I might understand what needs to happen to establish a cure. I just need some time to process it all… think… put stuff together.”

I look over at Sylas; the worry in me matches his. Time. I’d almost forgotten. We probably don’t have much time.

Taking a breath, I turn back to Mathew. “When we were in the colony, we heard the Highers talking about the monsters they’ve created; the ones we call abominations. They’re sending out an army of them out to find humans and bring them back.”

Mathew gapes at us, his wide eyes matching the full moon in the backdrop. “They’re coming here? To our town?”

“I think so,” I tell him. “At least, that’s what we’ve heard… although they said it could take days, even weeks to get the orders through.”

Mathew glances around at the streets winding in and out of the buildings, panicking, probably visualizing the madness and chaos that could happen. They’re fairly empty now, but they were packed quite a while ago, and if the abominations were around, they’d have chased down every last one.

He looks at both Sylas and me, pleading. “Can you help us?”

This town was ready to lock us up, yet Mathew wants us to protect them—save them. Sylas glances at me, and I can tell he’s thinking the same thing, waiting to see what I tell Mathew. Monarch told me I was here to help find a cure. That my purpose was to save humanity. To save the world.

“That’s what I was made for,” I say, my thoughts sort of connect, forming an understanding.

I understand. What I have to do. What I am. Why I was created.

Mathew breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Sylas says. “Just because we’ll help you, doesn’t mean we’ll win,” he states bluntly. When Mathew frowns, he adds, “Just gather everyone that can fight.”

He nods his head and walks away down the street, heading towards the guards near the closest building.

“Do you think that I’m doing the right thing?” I ask Sylas. “Do you think I’m even strong enough to help?”

“I think that you’re doing what you are supposed to do.” He takes my hand and offers me a smile. A real one, too, which he’s rarely—if ever—done.

I open my mouth to say more because I’m worried about if I can handle this, but he silences me by placing his lips on mine. His tongue slips between my lips. He tastes so good that I open my mouth and willingly let him explore me. We don’t notice when Maci walks up behind us until she taps me on the side.

We break away from each other, startled. Or at least I am. Sylas looks momentarily content.

“It’s time,” Maci announces with her hands on her hips.

“Time for what?” I ask her, wondering if I’m going to get another one of her little riddles about the future.

“Time for me to tell you how to save the world,” she answers.