Amber Deen

Amber Deen stared at her reflection on the stainless-steel surface of the elevator button panel. At the corner of her eye, she could see Gabe, the Guardian Angel, lazily floating somewhere to her right side. It didn’t have its own reflection.

[I would go to the fourth floor if I were you.]

Thanks for that, she thought, pressing the correct button.

Dario, also known as 'Blank' since they were on a mission, raised an eyebrow at her. She gave him a nod to confirm it was the instructions of her Guardian Angel. Then she scooted to the wall because she was weirded out by the stuttering and shuddering man in the middle of the elevator—a doctor of the hospital who entered just before the doors closed.

The doctor immediately spotted something was wrong with their disguise, leaving Blank no choice but to incapacitate him. He placed his hand on the nape of the doctor’s neck and used his power. Deen hoped it wouldn’t leave any lasting effects on the poor doctor.

Admittedly, their disguise wasn’t particularly good. They had to make do with what they could prepare on short notice. Blank procured a couple of scrubs for them to wear; these were kind of the same shade of green as that used by the hospital, although closer scrutiny would show they were a cheaper variety. The ones they wore didn’t even have embroidered hospital logos; this was what the shaking doctor beside her noticed right away.

That was on top of the two of them already looking weird.

Both of them wore wigs to hide their blonde hairs; they also wore medical masks to hide their faces. To add to their height, they placed two-inch-thick insoles inside their shoes. A couple of layers of bulky clothing underneath their baggy scrubs changed their figures a bit. Blank explained this would make it harder for anyone reviewing the security camera footage later to get an accurate description of their body shapes for investigation.

It was just added precaution. If everything went well, no one was going to check the cameras anyway.

As the elevator went up, Deen prayed to the Mother Core that her Guardian Angel wasn’t making a mistake. She wasn’t that religious, but she did believe the Mother Core was a higher being that protected humanity. And wasn’t her power supposed to be made from an actual Core?

They couldn’t distract the people at the front desk and search the computer terminal for Julie's room because cops were stationed there. Left with no other leads, they decided to trust the Guardian Angel in finding Julie. After all, it found Ramello’s room inside a hospital before.

Blank pressed the button for the topmost floor just as they were about to arrive on the fourth floor. “So, our friend will be on his way,” he explained.

They alighted and left the doctor inside. Deen heard him mumble, “Wha-what? What’s…going on?” before the doors closed and the elevator went up.

Blank grabbed her arm and steered her into the left-wing, away from the nurse’s station in front of the elevators. The two nurses there paid them no mind. One had his back turned to them, checking something in the cabinets. The other nurse was focused on her computer.

Gabe was silent.

Deen warily glanced at the security camera at the end of the hallway. As the two of them turned the corner, they ran into a couple of cops who were patrolling. She hugged the metal clipboard she carried close to her chest to hide her lack of a hospital logo.

Blank nodded at them. “Everything quiet here, officer?”

“Nuthin’ much going on,” said the gruff cop with a greying beard. "No one 'ere but us."

“And Luis doing his rounds,” added the young cop who looked like he was fresh out of police academy. “I think he went to the other side of the floor.”

“The nurse? You know his name?”

His partner shrugged. “Was chatting with him ‘cause he was stressed they aren’t allowed to go home, and that his family might get harassed because he works here. You know, the whole deal with being assigned to Adumbrae victims?”

“True that,” grumbled the older cop. “We’re all on the same boat here.” He turned to Blank. “I thought it’s…um, Luis, yeah. Isn’t it Luis and that Chinese wom—?”

“Her name’s Mella, and I don’t know if she’s Chinese.”

“Asian, wud do I know? Aren’t those two doing the rounds here?”

“Dr. Sean Crawford told us to check something.” Blank held up a folder full of scraps of paper; it was just a prop. “He went up the elevator just now. You can confirm with him later.” Deen was surprised he had the foresight to check the doctor’s nameplate.

“Bah, no need. We dun wanna hassle you guys further. Already stressful enough as is.”

“True, true,” Blank laughed, nodding at Deen.

She chuckled with him. It came off a bit forced.

It was weird seeing him laugh; it didn’t quite reach his piercing steel eyes. Having his mouth covered while he made laughing sounds with deadly serious eyes was eerie. The cops didn’t seem to mind as they passed between them, going to the hallway leading to the elevator. Blank held up his finger to signal her to stay. She raised a brow at him. He cocked his head in their direction. The footsteps of the cops faded. Everything was silent.

“They didn’t stop by the nurse station to ask about us. Did your Guardian Angel say anything?”

“No, why?”

“I was just wondering…you didn’t join in chatting with the police officers. I thought it said something to you.”

“Oh. Um, that’s why I didn’t say anything. Because it also didn’t say anything.”

“Isn’t that too restrictive of an interpretation?” he said. “Shouldn’t you assume that if it’s silent, then you’re free to do most of everything and not mess up anything? You could’ve done a cartwheel in front of those cops and I’m sure nothing bad would’ve happened. Your Guardian Angel would’ve told you otherwise beforehand.”

Deen frowned. She understood what he was trying to say, but she still didn’t agree. “I don’t think cartwheeling—"

“My example was just an exaggeration. Take what happened when we stepped out of the elevator. Our choices were either to go right or left. We went left because I instinctively preferred left as I am left-handed. Your Guardian Angel didn’t say anything, which meant it was right—‘right’ as in correct.

“Then we met the cops. You didn’t warn me about anything beforehand, like telling me to ‘keep quiet’ for example, so I assumed I should talk to them. The Guardian Angel looks at future possibilities, doesn’t it? My future possibilities should mostly be me, acting…as me. Ten out of ten times I would’ve talked to those cops to avoid suspicion, which was why I did it without you telling me to do it. See what I mean?”

“I…yes. I haven’t thought of it that way before.”

“Just keep that in mind. Moving on, the fourth floor has semi-private wards. I suppose we’ll have to check each one of these rooms quickly. We have seven minutes left.”

“Around that, yes.” Deen could feel that Gabe could look about ten minutes into the future—maybe it was increasing now as her powers developed.

When Gabe told her to go to the fourth floor when she thought of looking for Julie, it didn’t simply point them in the right direction, it was essentially saying it picked a future wherein it saw that they reached Julie safely—which should be about ten minutes from the time it told her to go to the fourth floor.

“Okay, I’ll take this side of the hallway,” Blank said. “You got her picture that Johann printed out?”

“Yep. Here, attached to my clipboard.”

“Let’s find her then. Be fast, but don’t be suspiciously too fast. We don’t know if security guards are watching the cameras. They usually don’t, but prudence is a virtue.”

“Got it.” She reached the first double doors on her side of the hallway. She peeked through the windows on the doors to check the room even though the cops did say the nurse assigned here was doing rounds in the other wing. Prudence.

The beds were separated by curtains; she wouldn’t know if someone other than the patients was inside.

Gabe will tell me if there’s a problem, she reminded herself. She strode in with the confidence that she worked here. The lights were dimmed because the patients were asleep, but it was still bright enough that she could make out their faces. The six female patients were too old to be Julie.

“Is this the female side of the floor?” she muttered, finding the next room with six more female patients, all asleep as well. If it was, Gabe really did take into account Blank going left as soon as they exited the elevator. Julie wasn't here either.

After a couple more rooms, she found Blank waiting for her in the hallway. He pointed at a door. “I found her,” he said.

“Oh, that was fast.”

“Barb also messaged me that she and Emcee are okay. They are just going to check out something.” He pushed open the door for her. “The last bed,” he whispered.

“Thank goodness everyone here is asleep too.”

“Shhh.”

Deen shone her phone’s light on Julie’s picture on her clipboard, and compared it with the brunette girl sleeping on the bed next to the window—Julie was just a teen so it was correct to call her a girl, but it made Deen realize she was getting older. She scrunched her nose a bit at the thought.

Blank questioningly tilted his head. Deen nodded hers to agree it was indeed Julie. He put a finger on his lips to indicate keeping silence, then pointed at the door. She understood he meant for her to stand guard. As she tiptoed back to the door, careful not to wake the other patients, she glanced over her shoulder and saw him putting his hands on Julie’s forehead.

She watched the empty corridor and tried to force herself to relax; a paradox in and of itself.

Why am I always so stressed? I’m the one with the power to look into the future…kind of.

Blank was right. If Gabe didn’t say anything, then it was fine.

Her Guardian Angel didn’t make a pip when they scaled the tallest wall behind the hospital using Barb’s power—protesters couldn’t climb that way unless they brought firefighter-levels of ladders, so there was only a patrol team passing that section every fifteen minutes or so. Gabe also was quiet when they broke into the hospital itself through a fire escape door. The only time it did speak tonight was once in the elevator, and when they passed through the main lobby after donning their disguises, telling them which persons to avoid.

And even without her Guardian Angel’s protection, Barb and Emcee were doing just fine guarding the way out the hospital’s back wall, with Oberon’s scouting fairy, Sneak, to give them a head’s up of danger.

I’m just overthinking things.

Still, she couldn’t shake away the feeling of anxiety.

But this is normal, right? It was a human trait to expect to run into trouble when everything was moving forward without a hitch. Having a prescient pet, she expected she’d be less nervous about…everything, but it might’ve just made her more paranoid.

Right now, she half-expected the cops they met earlier to come running back after finding out they weren’t real nurses. Or the nurses stationed here would come to check up on them. Or that doctor would remember he met suspicious people on the elevator. Having everything proceed so smoothly was eerie.

She shook her head.

Instead of being stressed, she should be elated that once Julie’s memory was erased, they’d be safe from the BID. Erind, especially, would be safe.

Erind…

In her attempt to distract herself from stressing out with their mission, her mind wandered to Erind’s bloody clothes she found in the washing machine. What were Barb and Erind doing that day? Were they fighting? Fighting what?

Deen’s heart beat faster as a disturbing thought came to her.

Adumbrae eat people…

Maybe not all of them, but she had seen more than enough Adumbrae on the news killing and eating humans. The mutants made by the 2Ms also ate many innocent people in the Eve arena. In turn, the brains of those mutants were processed by the 2Ms for their Adumbrae clients. Would a ‘normal’ Adumbrae like Erind just outright eat people?

That would explain the blood.

And it would also explain why Erind didn’t tell her anything. Barb’s sister Kelsey was an Adumbrae; that was what she told them when they met for the first time. Did she procure humans for her sister to eat? Was she doing the same thing for Erind?

Deen slapped her cheeks. What is going through my brain? This is too much overthinking at work.

Surely, there was some logical explanation for the blood that didn’t involve eating humans. Then her eyes widened, realizing that the noise of slapping herself might’ve woken up the patients.

She swallowed as she turned to them.

They were still asleep.

Right. Gabe didn’t say anything so there should be no problem. She really should be more relaxed with having an ally with foresight over her shoulder. They must have had some really good luck that all the patients were sleeping. But there was something off with them.

The patients here, as well as the other rooms she searched, all laid straight on their beds with their arms beside them. Not that it was weird to sleep that way; Deen herself slept flat on her back. But shouldn’t a few of them be sleeping on their sides, turned right or left, or maybe curled up? At least have a stretched arm here and there. She knew Erind’s preferred sleeping position was flat on her stomach.

Deen approached the woman nearest her. Gabe didn't tell her to stop. She pulled down the covers and gasped at what she saw.

The arms of the woman were strapped to the sides of the bed with restraints. She reached for the woman’s shoulders and shook her. She didn’t stir. But she was alive; her chest moved as she breathed.

Deen rushed to Blank and found that he already discovered that Julie was tied to the bed too.

“I suppose you also found out,” he said.

“I think they’re sedated,” said Deen.

He opened Julie’s eye and examined it with a small flashlight. “You’re probably right.”

“Why would the hospital do this? They're all normal humans. Are they that afraid some of them might become Adumbrae?”

“Plausible. An Adumbrae in the initial stages of seeding won’t have the strength to break these bonds. It might be the case that someone did get infected here, that’s why they implemented these precautionary measures.”

“That’s horrible…these poor people. Can’t we do anything?”

“Obviously not. What could we do here? And this is just temporary. When they are eventually cleared, they’ll be released no problem.”

“Ah…yes, you’re right. Fortunately, Erind didn’t have to endure this.”

“And with Julie’s memories wiped, she won’t have—hang on,” Blank answered his phone. He put it on loudspeaker, saying with an assuring wink, “They’re all asleep anyway.”

“Blank, you there?”

“Yes, wha—”

“We have a problem. We, uh, found something. The 2Ms are connected to this place. We should—”

There were scuffle noises and Emcee’s voice came on. “Blank, we need to get out of this place. Barb’s about to do something stupid and expose us.”

“No, I’m not!” they heard Barb’s faint voice speak in the background.

“Let’s get out of here,” Emcee repeated. “We need to discuss what to do about this thing we discovered.” Barb continued arguing with him.

[It's a good time to leave the hospital.]

"My Guardian Angel says we should go," Deen hurriedly said to Blank.

“Got it.” He exited the room, Deen keeping up with him. “We’re going down. You and Barb stay put. Tell Oberon to make sure our way out is clear.”