His hatred was tangible.
I wanted to know what had happened to the rest of the Guides and Protectors, but was suddenly more scared of him than I had ever been. His dark, evil aura surrounded him making me feel extremely uncomfortable.
“It was easy to destroy them you know,” he said, picking the thoughts out of my head; I knew instantly that Sam and I had been right. We could read each other’s minds; we just needed to master it. I shook my head. I would not play his games.
He snorted once again, rummaging through my head. “Oh come now, you wanted the truth after all. It wasn’t I that created our kind this way, but it will be me that fixes it,” he said, sounding almost proud of himself.
His egotistical confession was horrifying. How many had he murdered? My heart constricted as I thought of my parents, so casually tossed to the side. Grief threatened to overtake me as I thought of all the lives lost. Was he a… I searched for a phrase I remembered hearing years ago in my one attempt at attending church when I was younger.
“Fallen Angel?” He said impatiently rummaging through my head. “Your ignorance is almost overwhelming. You’re supposed to be more superior to typical humans, but you seem to lack the IQ I am used to dealing with.”
Like I cared at this point what he thought of me. I did wonder though, if we were directed by angels, how he was able to murder innocent people without any repercussions?
“I have the protection of another higher power, you could say; one that encourages my talents,” he said with a sinister smile that made my skin crawl.
“Why were we abandoned? Why not destroy all of us? We were practically babies,” I asked angrier than I had ever been. He had destroyed all our lives and seemed so pleased by his deeds.
“My intention was never to destroy our kind, but to make it stronger. Your parents wouldn’t listen to my ideas, choosing instead to trust in a creator that made them weak. They left me no alternative but to eliminate them. I have been watching and observing all of you for the last fifteen years. I know everything about all of you. It was only a matter of time before you were drawn here, just as we were before you. Soon, the other Protectors and Guides will come as well, feeling the call of the Holy Cross. Let me rephrase that. The others will join me since you and your significant other will no longer exist.”
An errant thought hit me. “Don’t you mean the other four? There’s still another couple out there besides Lynn and Robert.”
“Once again your assumptions are wrong. I never said I gave up all of you. I kept the more docile pair as my own. They adore their papa and would do anything for me. They’ve been raised to appreciate how special they are. Through my guidance, they have become more powerful than even I could have imagined. The girl shows none of the weakness you exhibit, and soon I will have all the information I need to complete my work.
“Don’t look so dismayed my dear. It is all for the greater good. The others will become stronger because of your sacrifice.”
“You’re a monster,” I said, not afraid of his anger.
Surprisingly he was not angry, instead he laughed.
“A monster? I don’t think so. I just took back some of the power. There was a flaw in our DNA makeup when we were created and I decided to fix it.”
This was all sickening, I thought. Where did such evil come from?
“They will stop you,” I told him.
“On the contrary, I believe they will look at your deaths as a lesson. In fact, they will embrace me as a father. They have felt lost throughout the years, just as you have, but I will help them realize how special they are and how strong they can become.”
I knew he was wrong, and I felt bad for the others. Soon they would have to face this monster also. Mostly I felt sad for Mark and me. We would never have children, and we would never grow old together. He was stripping our lives away from us just like he had with our parents.
“No more questions?” he asked in a mocking voice.
I was silent. There was nothing else to ask. He was the monster I had imagined him to be. I would give him no more satisfaction.
“Well, I see the last part was a deal breaker,” he said with a small laugh. “Think of your part in this as furthering the lives of the others. I think we can continue with the experiments now,” he said as he turned and walked away.
I wanted to protest, to plead with him not to hurt me anymore, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I remained silent as they strapped me down to the same table as before, remaining rigid as they fastened my ankles down. Only when the woman approached with the dreaded sensors did I finally respond. A silent tear rolled down my face. I looked around as best I could with my head strapped down and saw everyone busy at various computers, only Bruno was watching me.
The sensors were placed in different locations this time and I eyed them with renewed panic remembering the pain they caused before.
The first jolt sent a flash of fire through my body.
I was too weak to scream like I had the day before, but I did let out a slight moan. The next round was more severe than the previous jolt and I welcomed the darkness as I once again lost consciousness.
When I woke, I was not in my cell. I was still in the laboratory, but someone had moved me to a different table. I wasn’t wet this time, but my hair was damp so once again they must have bathed me. Looking around, I could see that the laboratory was nearly empty with only one grunt over by the computers. I looked around for Bruno, but he was nowhere to be found. I wondered briefly how Russo had managed to get so many others to help him, but I guess evil wasn’t hard to find in the world.
I closed my eyes; at least they hadn’t locked me back in the cell. Maybe they realized I was no longer a threat. I knew the end was close. My guess is that we had been missing for over thirty-six hours now. I had a small nagging feeling that there was something I had wanted to do, but I was too tired to focus on what it could have been.
I continued to lie there, feeling like I was drifting in and out of consciousness.