Charlie’s eyes widened as she spoke, something like clarity or recognition glimmering in those green irises. ”Oh, ne me dérange pas,” she said softly. She shifted her gaze to the floor.
August and Malachi sat across from each other, the cold light above them casting strange shadows on their faces. August brought out a small electronic device in the shape similar to that of a coin, and pressed a button on its rim. A simple recording device.
“Just procedure,” August said.
“Just procedure,” Malachi echoed. A ghost of a smile graced his lips.
The woman across from him took a deep breath. “As much as I would like to be casual about this and celebrate your return, I’m afraid we cannot. Please, start from the beginning, and give a full report on what took place from the moment of your abduction to when you were found, if you can.”
Malachi followed her example and also took a breath. “Alright. I…” He had to think for a moment; the beginning felt so long ago. “… I remember we spotted the Hughes twins’ car and we ran toward it… and I felt something grab my wrist. The next thing I knew, I was in an alien facility with Arden dragging me along. I… I forget some of the details. We ended up talking, and I believe she used her dark abilities to form chains and tie my wrists to the wall. We conversed some more. I think I asked her why she was kidnapping me. She said she was an assassin and general servant of the aliens, tasked with collecting me to be executed.”
Across from him, August’s eyes hardened, but she said nothing.
“I’m not sure what else was said, but at some point she…” here, it became difficult to speak. “She, ah, starting shaking… and dropped to the floor. She started muttering things too, I think… it was too quiet to make out any words. The shadow chains around my wrists disintegrated, maybe because she was in that state. I’m not sure why I didn’t immediately run away. I guess I… felt bad for her. It seemed to me that she was trapped in the aliens’ world, and I wanted to help her. After a minute or two she came out of her… episode, and it was then I decided too, well, kidnap her back. Since she’s so small, I was able to overpower her and carry her as I ran down the hallway. That was when the alarm rang, but I don’t think it had anything to do with us- I think it was just bad timing. The aliens soon discovered us though. Funny thing was, as we ran, she started helping me and giving me directions. Only because she wanted my blood on their hands, not hers, she said. We found the exit, and she used her ability to teleport us to the other side of the door. We made it outside, but the teleportation had a painful affect on me, slowing me down, and the aliens soon caught up to us. They started shooting as we ran to the fence that separated the complex from the forest. Here it gets a little… fuzzy, but I remember getting hit by bullets and jumping over the fence, but I think I blacked out for second. Hmm… I don’t remember…” he paused before finding his words again.
“The next thing I remember was being next to Arden… I think we separated when we jumped, and she came over to me and teleported. I was next her, deeper in the woods.”
“And the aliens?” August cut in.
“Oh- I don’t think they could see us, the grass was tall. They had stopped shooting at this point. And I think my indestructibility had activated, because I don’t remember bleeding or the bullets actually puncturing my skin.” He paused again, and August nodded.
“We were… hiding behind a tree, I think. I heard singing, then a gunshot, the singing stopped. Then there was… a face, a face in front of us. It came closer and I saw it had a white tiger’s body connected to it. After that… ah, I think I blacked out again.”
August tilted her head. “A human face connected to a tiger’s body?”
He nodded fervently. ”Oui, I wonder if she’s a failed experiment like I am.”
She bit her lip, her brow quirking with incredulousness. “Continue.”
“I woke up in a cave. Arden and the creature were there, and Arden explained that the killed one of the aliens and brought us both to the cave. We started talking a bit more… some of it isn’t so important… But I learned that she was raised under the alien’s custody, so she never had a solid idea of right and wrong. She could communicate telepathically with the creature somehow, and she could use her powers to heal me. Ah, I think the force of the bullets on my skin was still painful, even if it didn’t pierce it. She finally told me her name, or at least part of it. I suspected she might be related to Evan. Hmm… at some point the creature killed a deer for us to eat, and through their whole telepathy thing we found out our location. We couldn’t leave till morning because of the storm though.”
He sighed. “We talked a bit more….” he remembered the details of that conversation, but it was something he wanted to keep to himself. Some of it was too personal to Arden, and it wasn’t very important anyway. “And then I think she saw something outside the cave. A shadow. She kept telling me to rest and sleep, but I wasn’t in the mood, so she knocked me out instead.” He chuckled slightly. “The creature woke me up, and Arden was gone. The creature allowed me to ride her to search for Arden. When we found her, she… she was with another girl, and they were fighting and shouting, I’m honestly not completely sure what happening since I came in the middle of it. The other girl was shouting words in a different language, I think. At some point Arden stopped fighting, I think she was being controlled by the other girl. They spoke to each other as if she was Arden’s commander of some kind. After that, the girl disappeared. Arden came toward where I had been hiding and attacked me. She was… very powerful, there was nothing I could do. I don’t remember anything that happened, during or after. That… that was the first day.”
