Blinding Light (BLS Book 1)

Asher

Earlier…

It’s like we’ve unleashed the beast within her. She is smashing through everything with inhuman powers and leaving every single one of our members lifeless on the ground. But still alive. When she took off, I couldn’t even catch sight of her shadow before she just disappeared before my very eyes. I look around the corridor. Her violent thoughts are so hard to hear. It’s like I’ve never even met the right girl. And not only that, I could feel the emotions welling up in her heart through the violence.

Maybe there’s still a person in there that can be saved.

And she was right; I am a coward. I only took her side because I didn’t want to be on the receiving end. I didn’t want to be the one to blame by the girl who I’ve had a crush on since forever.

It’s then I see Nolan on the floor, shivering and groaning. He’s lying on his side and clutching his stomach as if the world depends on it. I rush over to him.

“Are you okay?” I push him over the face me. He grabs my shirt, pulling himself up and facing me—his strength surprises me.

“You are the only one that can get to her now. We have no hope without her. We have no hope without you.”

Just then, his hand goes slack, and his eyes roll to the back of his head.

“No!” I shake him, but he doesn’t respond. “Stay with me!” I rip open his shirt, but I see no wounds except for that trail of blood on his chin. The place his hand was is perfectly intact, there are no visible wounds for me to find, to check.

What has she done to his internal organs?!

I search all over, but there’s not a single injury in sight except the slight burn on his leg and clothes.

Maybe I’ve made a terrible mistake. Maybe I chose the wrong side, blinded by my emotions.

The burns cover him, but no bleeding comes from the wounds. There’s only a trail of blood on his chin. But from experience, I knew that blood from the mouth can only come from extreme impact on organs or…the chest area.

Just then, my mother rushes over.

“Nolan! Oh my god,” she comes over. Her clothing is dirty from all the dust, blood slightly coats her face. Half of her hair is burned away and I could smell it. But it didn’t matter to her, she bends down next to Nolan. She checks his pulse. It takes at least ten seconds before she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Asher,” she looks at me, desperation fills her eyes, “Find her. Bring her back.”

Why would she say that when Nolan’s life is on the line?!

“I can’t leave!” I exclaim, motioning to Nolan’s unconscious body. “Besides, how in the world am I supposed to do that? She trusts no one.”

“No. When she blasted back all of us, she unintentionally didn’t hurt you as bad,” her eyes are full of emotion. “She must feel something for you! I saw it.”

“That doesn’t—” I sigh, “How can I possibly do that, Mother? There are more important things to be worrying about.”

I gesture at Nolan’s unconscious body again. The burnt marks on the floor show that he put up a fight. But no modified, children ability can take on their creator.

“Yes. You’re right,” Mother says, then she pulls out a device. It puts her voice over the comms that are all around what’s left of the compound.

“I need medics. In I-84, repeat, I need medics, now,” she says, then logs off it.

“Asher.”

For the first time, her words don’t have hidden meanings behind them. They’re desperate, for a solution.

“Listen to me. We are exposed to the virus, yet nothing has happened yet. But trust me when I tell you this, Nolan will be fine. Our medics will treat him, but time isn’t on our side. If we don’t get her back, we will all be infected by the virus. We have no immunity if the facility is broken. If Nolan were not to die now, he will die later. We all will.”

She puts on hand on my cheek, reassuring me. “She has some trust left in you, if not all. Try, for the sake of everyone, for me.”

I bite my lip and squeeze my fists. Nolan is going to die either way—he can die now, or he can die later. And I’m not about to let the first option happen. I nod against my mother’s palm.

“Find her,” she says, “We will rebuild this facility—that’s our job. Your job is to bring her back.”

I stand and take off towards the big hole in the walls of the compound. That’s most likely where she has gone. I can only hope that I’m not too late.

***

“Mila?” I call out across the grass field. Even though I’m not supposed to be outside of the facility, I rather risk it now and get a cure than die inside with no hope.

It takes five seconds, and I hear a response.

“Asher?”

My name rolls so smoothly off her tongue.

Is it possible that when you’ve liked someone for so long that it never seems to leave? No matter the cost?

No matter how wrong it is?

I jog towards the noise and find her sitting by a tree on the ground, hugging her knees.

“What have I done, Asher?” She cries, sobbing uncontrollably. “What have I done?”

‘I’m a monster.’

My heart breaks for her but I felt a twinge of fear when I approach her. I kneel next to her and let my trembling hand slowly touch her shoulder.

She doesn’t say anything, and I sigh in relief. I’ve never been good at emotions. And I can’t even imagine what she’s going through right now.

“Hey,” I say, embracing her fragile body in my arms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the pain we’ve caused you. That I caused you, I can’t even imagine what it was like for you all these years. I know I’ve been a jerk in every possible way, and can never earn your forgiveness.”

She looks up at me, her eyes not as green as before but reddish, but it’s not completely red. And I intend to keep it that way. I don’t let my surprise come through my face. Instead, I say firmly,

“Mila. You’re not an experiment. We took forty years to seek you out because you are a gift. A gift from the heavens, from the universe, I don’t know. But I know that you are special, you are our savior, our hero.” I use my thumb to brush her tear away.

“I can’t promise you anything. And this is probably an act out of emotion anyway. I’m sure you hate me by now.”

She remains silent. Her body is only reacting to all that adrenaline. It’s not comprehending everything else from its shock state.

“But I’m going to be here. Maybe not as a friend. But as an ally. Call that cowardice, but a man can hope,” I sigh.

At that moment, I wish time would stop. I wish we didn’t do this to her. I wish it never happened. I wished that she could’ve come into my world, my time. We could’ve lived a happy, long life together.

“I’ll be by your side…”

That could never be possible and I knew it. With the virus, we never would’ve had anything together.

Yet, here she is, trembling in my arms, and I can’t help but promise her that she’s not alone. I’ve liked her for so long now. I wanted to be there, a traitor to my own people, to her, in every possible wrong way, I wanted to be there.

“Always.”