Blinding Light (BLS Book 1)

Asher

My mind keeps drifting. Back to her—back to Mila Hayes. A name that rolls so easily off my tongue but with so much guilt. Whatever promise I made to myself kicks itself out the window. We will begin phase three. We put her back to sleep until then. It’s been thirteen hours since then, been twelve years since we first captured her—been two months since her ability appeared for the first time.

How are we supposed to get her on our side now? We had no idea…

I had no idea that she was capable of doing such things. I didn’t think she had a single strand of evil on her pure soul. But now…

I chuckle to myself. We made her this way.

I don’t see how phase three is ever going to be successful. Even if it was her doing, we just made her kill her sister. And we did absolutely nothing to stop it.

Oh, how screwed we are now.

“What are you chuckling about?” Nolan asks, catching up next to me. If I had to guess, maybe he developed some kind of teleportation ability that he has told no one about. Hydrokinesis isn’t exactly a quiet power—its destruction is not something to be questioned about. But he somehow is as sneaky as a cat, no…more like a mosquito probably.

“None of your business,” I reply, nonchalant to him and everything else.

“If I had one guess Asher, I’m guessing that you had feelings for her.” His words ring out before my thoughts drown them out.

How did he know? Have I not been discreet enough? I feel my cheeks get warm, and my eyes widen. I clear my throat,

“What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Well, I wasn’t sure before, but I sure as hell know the answer now,” he sneers.

Ugh, I shouldn’t have said anything...

Jeez, I hate him sometimes.

“No attachments,” he says. “No attachments was what we agreed to when we signed to be part of the APT.”

“I know,” I say, annoyed. I know what I signed up for.

“You know? Do you fucking know?! Then why Moore…” he grits his teeth. I stare at his furious face.

“What do you mean why? Since when did you start caring about shit that’s going on in my damn life?!” I say before I could stop myself.

“Why must you do this to the Project?” He obviously did not hear what I just said.

I swear talking to him is like talking to a brick wall.

I hold back the urge to roll my eyes as he continues, “To everyone? This is not what we bargained for.”

“That was twelve years ago, Nolan!”

I feel my anger fuel up. “I didn’t know what I was signing up for.”

We stare at each other, both fuming.

“Besides, I did what I had to didn’t I?!” I roll my eyes and break the stare-down. “You can’t tell me that she’s not likable,” I mutter to myself.

“She is likable, but I don’t feel anything for her!” He defends.

“Of course you don’t,” I answer, rolling my eyes. “You’re the perfect model of a son, the perfect everything. Perfection doesn’t need crappy feelings.”

“I... it’s not that simple,” he says, looking at me all serious—for the first time in his life. “That type of feeling I never allow myself to have. How can you live with yourself?” That question brings my attention back.

“You know that we can’t memory wipe anymore,” he continues, “We can’t rewind. Anything of the sort will fry our brain once and for all.”

“I know,” I mutter.

He sighs, giving in, “I worry for you, man.”

From the look in his eyes, I can tell he’s sincere. I feel a gleam of hope that the Nolan I used to know didn’t completely disappear.

“We’ve been working together ever since we were little. Well, I gotta say, not all the time, I worry for you.”

“You’re like a brother to me, idiot,” I pat his back, smirking and taking in his moment of vulnerability. “Don’t worry about it. I will sort it out. Besides, you know what they say, time will heal.”

“I do hope that’s true,” he says and smiles, but it never reaches his eyes.

***

When we reach the entrance, I could feel the darkness hood everything. I enter the passcode to the APT room, along with a scan of my eyes. It’s safer than fingerprints due to the amount of dirt and contact we use with our hands these days. When the door opens, everyone’s already there: Kaine, Mom, Sira, and Silas.

“What’s Silas doing here?” I blurt out.

“Hey, I’m here to help a-hole.”

I give him a flat look. He scoffs and turns away. I definitely know which two of the twins that I like better.

Sira types into the computer, not paying attention at all. Even if I’m no expert in computers or technology, even if we’re surrounded by it, her codes and tabs are so messy it makes my brain hurt by just looking.

“Si, you sure you know what you’re doing?” Silas chimes in, voicing my thoughts.

“Shut up, bro. I know what I’m doing.” Sira looks up from her monitor for the first time, “Unless you want to do it, nerd?”

“Hell no... nerd.” She rolls her eyes at his pathetic comeback. “Anyways…so I believe the only way to activate her power now completely is to simply…” She glances around the room, taking a deep breath.

“Is to…uh…tell her.”

“Tell her?!” Mom screeches, making me wince. I swear, her temper has been getting worse and worse each day. The calm before the storm would be a phrase I’d use right now.

“Yes, Indra. Tell her the truth,” Sira continues.

“That is not—”

“Please, Indra, listen to reason,” Sira says. “Sil, would you tell her, please?”

“Indra,” Silas begins, “My sister has been analyzing the data all these years, and isn’t it at least reasonable to listen to what she has to say?”

“Fine! Tell me why you fools think this is a good idea!” Indra scoffs.

Sira brings up a screen. It takes me a moment to realize that all the data we’ve collected is shown as a graph.

“So here you see is the last twelve years,” she points to the flat line that extends from 2328 to 2340.

“Mm-hmm,” Mother says sarcastically. “Please, do tell me what the useless data has to do with telling her—”

“Indra! Please, just listen to my sister,” Silas says, his voice just a little too loud.

But somehow, none of us can stay offended by that dude. He has that funny, adoring, and attracting aura that none of us seemed to be able to resist. Mom gives him a look, and as I’ve predicted, she nods for Sira to continue.

“Since the first time we’ve captured her, the ability, as you can see, waking for the first time. It did not stay as it disappeared once more for twelve whole years.”

She points to the graph when the bar rises just slightly before dropping to zero again.

“Then, from this July on, the progress bar has gone up. But what you don’t see is this.”

She types something into the laptop, and it concludes the data today, adding it to the graph. From today, the bar goes up more than fifty percent.

“This is only here because she thinks that she has destroyed her ultimate enemy.” She nods her head in Nolan’s direction. And I swear I just saw a flash of guilt on his face, but it disappears so quickly that I thought I must’ve imagined it.

“But think. If she is capable of murder, and that her family is important to her. Think about it for a second,” she pauses, looking around.

It makes sense. A dirty, disgusting, twisted sort of sense, but it makes sense. “If the ability boost from murdering her natural enemy jumps by fifty percent—fifty-two to be exact. Imagine the jump for her family member. It’s twisted and gross, but I believe it’s worth a shot. What have we got to lose?”

Kaine glances at Mom, who is still fuming, but seemed to be considering this.

“Indra?” Kaine asks. “What do you think?”

“It’s really risky. We can’t memory wipe her anymore to avoid damage to the vessel,” she paces around exactly one circle.

“But you’re right, Sira. What have we got to lose?” My mother smiles genuinely for the first time. It gives me hope, even if it’s in a twisted way.

It gives me hope that I may be able to see and live. Forty years of research, for me, nineteen gave me nothing; but today, it gives me hope that I’ll live to see the spring flowers of next year.

We all will.

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Thanks, with lots of smiles

☆•Yiona•☆