Erind Hartwell

3:46 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

“Anyone here?” I called as I stuck my head inside a room. Everything was bright as day even with the lights off. There was nothing weird inside this random office suite on the floor where our meeting place with the 2Ms was located. “I think this is a good place for Julie to hide.” I turned on the lights and beckoned the others to enter. It was a pretty wide space with no signs of struggle or of monsters. “Can you smell anything?”

“Erm, you guys go inside,” Ramon said, shifting in embarrassment. “I’ll stay here and guard. You might…just smell me. Just yell if you need help.”

Me, Doms, Paolo, and Julie quickly checked the room. Yep, only five of us were going to rescue Lizzie. Well, four, since we were going to leave Julie here with my real human body.

Vince, his son, and Samantha, the only ones who remained of Ramon’s companions—unless you count monster Cassandra roaming around somewhere—decided to stay on that floor where we fought Finlay and Calder, holing up in a room to hide. They figured it was better to take their chances and wait for the BID’s rescue.

We killed probably all of the monsters on that floor so it was relatively safe for them to remain there; they also had guns from Finlay’s puppets. Was that much safer than going with us to rescue Lizzie? Probably. I think I would’ve done the same thing if I was in their shoes, and just pray the giant charcoal monster wouldn’t pass by.

Julie wanted to come with us, which was obviously pretty dangerous. We settled in a compromise where she’d just hide somewhere kind of nearby, but not really. Which turned out pretty well because I had someone I could leave my body to for my plan later.

“Pao, listen.” Julie put her gun down and grabbed her brother’s shoulders. “Okay, this is weird. I’m taller than you now. It’s really you inside there?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Who else would it be? Want some proof? Remember that time you made out with your ex during spring break and got caught by—”

“Sshh! You promised to forget about that.”

“Just kidding. I’m just…you know…you’re all so serious.”

“This is serious!”

“What were you going to say? I’m going to take care of myself. I already promised we’ll return with Lizzie.”

“It’s just...I wanted a little sister for a long time. Maybe you should stay like this.”

“Huh?”

“Just kidding. You’re right. It’s getting too serious.”

These fucking kids. Should I smack them in the head? Making fun of my body like that even though I was several years older than them. “What’s the time, Julie?”

“It’s 3:47 a.m. Right, you shouldn’t waste time here.” She hugged her brother. “I’ll just be serious here and say that do be careful. And…I hope you can retain that form until we get help.”

“What do you mean—”

Julie pushed Paolo. “Go! Save Lizzie quickly.”

Did she suspect her brother was going to die when he returned to his original body? Because I was thinking that too. And Paolo most likely as well. He was really super dead I was even surprised he managed to copy my human body before he kicked the bucket.

“Take care of Erind,” I said.

“I will. Both of us will just be here in the small room behind the photocopier.”

“Don’t come out unless it’s us, okay? I think we can have like a code or signal. We’ll say ‘your little sister is here’ when we come get you.”

Julie forced herself to chuckle as she wiped a tear off her eye. “Okay guys, I know you’ll come back.”

I’ll surely be back, I thought, but I don’t know about the rest of us.

The conference room we were headed to was located at the end of this floor. I knew it opened to a massive cantilevered balcony, the prominent feature of this building, which overlooked the Olympic-sized pool. I haven’t been on that balcony; I only saw it from the pool below during the rare times I felt like swimming early in the morning when there were no people around.

“This is how it'll go,” I said. “We’re going to exchange Paolo with Lizzie. Then—”

“Will they believe I’m the real Erind?”

“Don’t worry about that. I know a bit about Erind and I’ll tell you what to say through our mental link. Once they get you, that’s where it’ll get dicey. I’m sure they’ll give us Lizzie because they'll attack us afterwards anyway.”

“You’re right,” Doms said. “They won't let us go alive.”

“What’s the plan then?” asked Ramon.

“Simple. We fight back. It’s not like we have any choice.”

“I mean, yeah…”

“Fight with escaping in mind. Paolo, when they get you, they’ll restrain you, maybe with something like those huge reinforced armcuffs the BID use when they arrest an Adumbrae. They’ll make sure you won’t be able to help us. Resist with everything you got.”

“Yeah, I will,” Paolo said. “I'm sure Erind’s body can put up a fight.”

“It’s on Ramon to rescue you and bring you back to our side. Ramon, the moment they touch Paolo, you attack and help him return to us. This is the crucial part of the plan. Once we’ve regrouped, we’d have more firepower to escape.” I paused, then added. “It’s important we help each other so all of us can get out of here alive.” Which goes without saying. But I still mentioned it anyway because it was more for Doms than the other two. I really hoped she wouldn’t abandon us once she got Lizzie, but I had to plan for that possibility.

“What do we know about them?” Doms said.

“Finlay is the guy with that clay…plaster, whatever power.”

“Easy for us to break,” Ramon said.

“He uses it mainly for making puppets. Those aren’t strong; we can count them as more grunts on their side. His brother, Calder, is more annoying with his illusion powers.”

“You can see through it, right?” Paolo said. “Didn’t he back off when you pointed your finger at him? I was facedown on the floor so I didn’t see what was going on.”

“Not exactly see through it. I can only see if a person is actually fake, or if Calder’s hiding someone behind an illusion,” I explained. “I was bluffing when I pointed my finger at him, and I have to thank Finlay for that. I was sure Calder heard Finlay’s comment I was doing something weird with my fingers and that I could see through the clay puppets and illusions. So, I pointed my finger at one of Calder’s men hiding behind him.”

“He had others with him?” Doms said.

“There were three more real people covered by a wall of illusion. When Calder realized I could see them, he backed off. Thankfully, he did because I really didn’t have anything else besides some minor body control powers.”

“It was you…” Paolo said.

“Sorry about that, I had to make you stay still so Calder wouldn’t notice you.”

Ramon said, “Ah, that time I suddenly stopped when we were fighting—”

“That was also me,” I confessed. Better tell them about it and not give them any reason to mistrust me. “But you easily broke out of it. I’m too weak now to do anything major with my powers, that’s why I’m mainly relying on Paolo and Doms. I’ll tell you guys if there’s any illusion shenanigans going on. Who else is there?”

“There’s Slinky, a huge man wrapped in bandages,” he said. “I shot him in the head and he just laughed it off. I think there’s an even bigger dude with some kind of weapon. There’s also a guy with augs, bionic eyes and modified arms, the works. Oh, and I nearly forgot. Their leader is this half-Asian lady. I’m not sure if she’s an Adumbrae too.”

“Could we take them all on?” Paolo said.

“We don’t need to fight to win,” Doms said. “Once we have Lizzie…” She didn’t continue her sentence.

“We have an ace up our sleeve.”

“Something that can help us win this impossible matchup?” asked Paolo.

“I think so…If it comes down to it, I can divert all my power and give it to Ramon. I’m sure he’ll become several times stronger than he is now, even if only for a short time. But I don’t want to do that unless our situation becomes dire. More dire than now…direr?”

“Why not? Ramon can beat up all of them? Let's just do that then!”

“No, because Doms will be helpless.” I looked Paolo straight in the eye. “And you’ll be helpless too.” And dead, I added in my head. From his expression, he understood what I was trying to tell him.

“I…I’m not that confident protecting others,” Ramon said. “I don’t have a good track record so far.”

“Don’t think about it now,” I said.

“I wasn’t able to save—"

“We’ll all fight together,” Doms said. “You’re not alone.”

“Okay guys, are you ready?” I said as we stood in front of the gilded oak double doors. This was like sticking my head into the gaping maw of a starving crocodile. Normally, I'd be giddy from this life-and-death situation, excited for the prospect of gambling my life and coming out on top because I was so awesome. Come to think of it, this may be too much of a risk that I wouldn’t have gone through with this without a back-up plan.

But I do have a back-up plan.

Which was why I didn’t feel any thrill.

I only had a little over ten minutes remaining in this transformation. My plan was to wreak as much havoc as I could, and, whether we succeeded or not, in ten minutes I was going to be fucking out of here. Whatever reason SpookyErind wanted me to use this face would be over once the three hours was up, so I was sure she wouldn’t mind if I used my Blanchette body to finish these assholes off.

They’d get what they deserved for bothering me. There was just so much to do after this…such a hassle! My god, these fucking people were really annoying for messing up my life.

Ten minutes.

And if it turned out I couldn't take them on, I'd already be out of this room and be off looking for a place to hide.

No risk whatsoever.

“You guys really came!” Finlay said.

“See, I told you they will,” Calder said. They were easy to tell apart with their clothes. “You owe me.”

We were inside a very large room, wider than the biggest lecture hall we had over at Cresthorne College. Given the height of the ceiling, with lavish crystal chandeliers dangling from above, this was probably two floors merged together.

All of the tables and chairs were stacked to the side, all except one table in the middle. Finlay and Calder were having tea with Lizzie. Corpses of humans and monsters surrounded them. There were elaborate cameras and lighting setup as if they were shooting a movie.

To our right were glass vats or tanks filled with green liquid, some containing monsters, some humans. There were also other machines I didn’t recognize. This was straight out of some sci-fi horror movie shit, like there were mad scientist experiments going on here.

On our left were people. Real live humans. Not monsters. They were bound and gagged, guarded by the grunts of the 2Ms.

“They’re gathering the survivors,” Paolo gasped.

“I think we can guess what they’re doing to them,” I said.

The room just extended on and on until an expansive wall of windows. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the view outside because those hugeass vines were crawling all over the balcony, pressing against the glass. Near the windows, a short woman in fitting business attire, probably a bit taller than me, walked to and fro while talking on the phone, her heels annoyingly clicking on the tiled floor.

She’s their leader?

“They’re not here,” Ramon whispered to me.

“The other Adumbrae?”

“Yeah. The dangerous looking ones are not here. We might really have a chance of winning this.”

“Unless they’re hidden by an illusion,” I said, scanning the room.

“Lizzie!” Doms called out. “I’m here for you!”

“Mommy!”

“Tell your Mommy we did nothing to you.”

“Um…um…”

“We're just having tea, aren't we, Lizzie?”

She nervously nodded.

"What did you do to her?" Doms demanded.

"Nothing!" Finlay said. "We didn't actually give her tea. This is just water."

"We're not that irresponsible as to give a kid tea," Calder said.

"Don't be afraid sweetie," Doms said. "Mommy is here."

“There's nothing for her to be scared of." Calder had his hand on Lizzie’s shoulder. "We’re all friends here.”

“Take your hands off her!”

“Relax, lady. You’ll have your daughter soon. I see that you’ve brought Erind.”

BOOM! The ornately carved column near their table suddenly exploded, showering them with debris. Finlay used his body to cover Lizzie.

“Can’t a person talk on the phone in peace around here?” the woman at the far end of the room boomed with an impressively loud voice for her stature. “Get me another phone!” Her voice reverberated around us. One of her men sprinted over and gave her what she wanted.

“Sorry about that, Miss Stella,” Finlay said. “You didn’t need to throw your phone at us.”

“Holy fuck,” Ramon whispered. “She’s really strong. I didn’t even see that.”

“And here’s the reason why she’s their leader,” I observed.

As Stella approached the table halfway across the length of the room, her expression changed to something gentler. “Hello! You must be Erind. We finally have a chance to meet each other. You seem plain-looking for all the trouble you’ve caused.”

(Answer her.)

Paolo nodded his head.

(What was that? Just a nod?)

(I don’t know what to say!)

“We’ve been looking all over for you and your friend, the wolf bitch. By any chance, is she around here? Is she coming?”

“I don’t know,” Paolo replied, following my instructions in his head. “Maybe? Just a clarification, she’s not my friend. I don’t know her at all even though I’ve seen her.”

Stella stopped beside the table. Finlay pulled up a seat for her, but she ignored him. She poured herself a cup, and drank it very slowly. Such a bitchy power move. Everything was silent except for the slight moaning and rustling of some of the hostages, and the hum of the weird machines.

"Miss Stella...that's just water."

"Refreshing." She looked at Paolo and said, “Are you really Erind?”