The beginning of hell

At this hour, and in this total desolation, not a single car is visible, except ours. A thick fog is spreading around, and it’s slowly starting to rain. What can I say, perfect driving weather, especially since I took my license two years ago, didn’t own a car and haven’t sat behind the wheel since then, so, as if to put it… I’m a bit out of practice. Anna wriggles in her seat as if she had pin-worms. She’s babbling like a possessed man, and I’m beginning to suspect that she presumably doesn’t know what she’s talking about herself. She snaps her long, blood-red painted nails, which makes me incredibly nervous. A little more and I swear I’ll burn her in that disheveled head! How much more can you do! My dad always said: “If you can’t drink, don’t drink.” One glance at Anna is enough to know that she doesn’t stick to this rule. When we reach the traffic lights, I stop the car, cause bad luck would have it that the red light has just come on. I take a deep breath and watch the wipers swinging from side to side, ridding the windshield of raindrops. Unexpectedly, I hear a loud squeal of tires and the sound of the engine. After that, everything happens so fast that I´m unable to react in any way. A big black off-road car drives at full throttle straight into our tiny pin-worms, crushing the entire right side.

  “Anna!” I shout in terror, seeing her head hit the dashboard with a bang. She immediately loses consciousness, and thick blood drips from her forehead. As quickly as I can, I grab my purse lying next to me, pull out Anna’s cell phone and dial the emergency number. I can’t believe what’s happening. I’m unable to control my shaking hands, not to mention my nervous, accelerated breathing. Tears begin to collect in the corners of my eyes, and the bitter-salt aftertaste refuses to disappear from my mouth. Putting the earphone to my ear, I put two fingers on Anna’s neck to check for a pulse. Nothing…“Anna!”   I squawk in a squeaky voice that sounds completely foreign, as if it doesn’t belong to me at all. I don’t understand what I did to the world that it decided to take away everyone I care about. First my parents, now her. How is it that this cursed world hates exactly me? Suddenly, someone jerks on the car door. After a moment, I feel a big paw grab my arm, squeezing it with such force that I can’t hold back a scream. The bulky man twists my arm back and slams me impetuously against the Corsa. The phone immediately falls out of my hand. 

  “Where is he?” growls the assailant, shaking me like a rag doll. At the same time he looks like a rabid bulldog, ready to bite his victim to death at any moment.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,”  I gasp, squinting my eyes in pain.

In  my  head,  I  search  in  vain  for  a  way  out  of  this  situation.   Calling  for help won’t bring anything, we’re in a total remote area.  Not a single vehicle or living soul is visible nearby. We're alone. I’m alone. Anna’s alone. Anna… I’m clinging to the hope that I've put my fingers in the wrong place, and she isn’t dead at all. That’s the only explanation, because after all, I couldn’t lose her too. A muscular man throws me onto the hard, rain-wet asphalt. Only now do I notice that he’s not alone. Four others have gathered around me.

  “I ask you one last time, bitch, where is he!”   he yells like crazy, then kicks me in the stomach.

I instinctively tense my muscles, which in the end still does nothing.  I limp and embrace with my arms.  My body is pierced by unimaginable pain, and blood drips from my mouth. Red begins to color the road on which I lie.

  “Who?” I  ask  in  a  trembling  voice. The  taste  of  metal  overpowers  my tongue.

I’m afraid. I've never been so afraid in my life. I’m slowly getting used to the idea that there is some kind of curse hanging over me that takes the lives of everyone I love. Yes, I’m cursed.

  “You already know very well who I mean, slut!” he howls. Another kick, which this time lands right on my ribs. I hiss, sob, shout something, but I don’t know what myself. I’m screeching in my ears, and my body is dying of pain. Everything hurts so monstrously. God, make it stop at last. I can’t stand it any longer. I clench my teeth and let out a loud moan again. What the hell is he talking about?

  “Where is One?  Where the fuck is he!”

One?  I don’t understand anything.  Either I’m crazy, or he’s the crazy one. No, we are probably both crazy.

  “I  have  no  idea  who  you  are  talking  about,”   I  repeat  through  tears  and whoop my own blood.

  “Get up!”   he roars.

I slowly make an attempt to lift myself off the asphalt. My legs are numb and the rest of my body doesn’t really want to cooperate with me. I feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. I think I’m going to throw up. My vision is getting worse by the second. Maybe it would be better for me if I passed out. When the man in front of me notices that I keep wobbling from side to side and can’t keep my balance, he waves his hand at the two types standing to my right and orders them to do something. One of them immediately appears behind me and grabs my arm. The fingers of his other hand melt into my hair and clench tightly. He brutally tugs at it, tilting my head back and forcing me to look at the angry type, who is apparently their boss. The agitated man pulls a shiny knife from behind his belt, twisting his mouth in a diabolical grin. Before he can do anything, however, I hear the sound of an approaching motorcycle. I don’t know if I should call for help. I don’t know if anything will pass my lips. I don’t even know if this person, who is about to see us, won’t just turn around and run away, saving his own ass. The type with the knife smiles broadly, showing his teeth. Unexpectedly, he pulls me close, putting the blade to my throat. The motorcycle’s engine goes out. The stranger stops, and I can’t believe it.

  “Tell me,”  speaks a thick, hoarse voice, coming from behind the off-road car, “how do you want to die?” I’m almost sure I know that voice.

  “One,”  pushes the man holding me with satisfaction.

He pulls me even closer to him, and the blade of the knife gently digs into my skin, leaving a small wound. I’m a living shield. I’m shivering, I just don’t know whether from cold, fear or pain. I intermittently draw in air through my nose. I have a strange feeling that as soon as I open my mouth, I will be wounded even harder. A slender figure emerges from the darkness, dressed in black from head to toe. Dark strands of hair obscure unusual violet eyes. He carefully takes his steps, as if his every move has been repeatedly thought out. It’s the boy from the café, but now he looks more like the one I saw in the forest. The expression on his face, the look in his eyes… This time there is a murderer standing in front of me, not an ordinary café customer.

  “You!”  I pout, making big eyes. For a brief moment, I forgot about the guy putting a knife to my throat.

I can’t decide whether I should be more afraid of the types who attacked us or of the boy who just appeared.

  “Me,” replies the stranger. “I guess that you are extremely happy to see me,” he adds amused.

How can he laugh at such a moment! He’s a cold-blooded killer, Alex, he’s a psychopath and probably laughs even as he slices his victims into tiny pieces, goes through my mind.

  “What are you grinning at, you son of a bitch!”   I hear the irritated voice of the man holding me.

I shudder. His grip is getting tighter and tighter, and I’m running out of breath. Suddenly, one of the men throws strange-looking handcuffs in the boy’s direction. I have never seen such before. They are solidly constructed and armed with two sharp spikes crossing in the middle. I swallow my saliva nervously.

  “It’s high time for you to come back, One,”  announces the type behind me. “You know what to do.”

  “Ha, and that’s a good one.” The stranger parries with laughter, as if he just heard a great joke. He grabs the back of his neck with his right hand and straightens his back firmly. “I guess you don’t know anything about the Project.” He tilts his head to the side. “Poor, ignorant pawns.”

He snaps his fingers theatrically, and at the same moment blue flames appear on both his hands.

  “I know very well that you won’t do anything to me as long as I have it with me,” the assailant states, but he no longer sounds as convincing as he did at first. He mercilessly tugs at my hair, as if he wants to further present me. My scalp pulses, pierced with pain.

  “Are you sure about this?”  The boy’s expression becomes serious, and his cold eyes stop on my face.  “Wrong,” he whispers.

In the next moment, several things happen at once. The guys gathered around us pull out their guns, pointing them straight at the boy, and immediately start burning. The type putting a knife to my throat presses himself against me so that no space separates us anymore, and the stranger straightens his hand, pointing his Index and middle finger in our direction, and extends his thumb upward. I’ve seen this gesture once before, and I know it won’t end well. An unpleasant shiver runs down my spine, and my heart stops, evenly with my breathing. His hand, folded into a pistol, is covered with blue glowing flames. The man behind me is panting uncontrollably. I don’t need to see his face, I know very well what he feels, because I feel exactly the same thing – fear. I don’t even try to imagine what it’s like to burn alive. The boy jerks his hand up vigorously, and simultaneously with the type holding me, I scream as loud as I can. Through the blue cloak of fire, I can see the stranger blowing invisible smoke off the “barrel” and grinning snow-white teeth, presenting a perfect smile. I can no longer keep my eyes open, my eyelids clench themselves. It’s over! I’m dying. I´m burning. I will slowly disappear from this world and nothing will be left of me. I will turn into brittle gray dust that the wind will blow away. I panic, I can’t take a breath, but the worst is the terrifying unconsciousness… what next? Where will I wander to? I’m afraid… Suddenly, something hits the ground. It must be a brief moment before I comprehend that the knife touching my throat is gone. The man behind me is no longer pulling my hair. I can no longer hear his scream, only mine remains. I feel warmth, a pleasant warmth. I think I’m losing my mind, or I’ve long since died, because nothing hurts me, on the contrary, I’ve never felt so good before. This warmth, this gentle and soothing warmth, unknown to me until now, envelops my entire body. I can’t compare it to anything, I lack the words to describe it. I melt, let myself be carried away, relax my muscles. I’m in heaven. This must be heaven.

  “I knew.” A quiet voice suddenly reaches my ears and violently pulls me out of my blissful state, bringing me back to the gray reality. “I knew it was you! After all, I’m always right.”

My eyes open immediately. Confused and shaken, I look first at myself, then at the boy standing right in front of me. I repeat this action several times and still can’t believe it. I wrap my arms tightly around myself. Maybe I should pinch myself on the cheek to see if I’m dreaming awake once again? But what the hell would that supposedly get me? Even if I’m stuck in one of my nightmares, I won’t wake up just because I start pinching my face like an idiot. Anna! Her name hits me like a sharp kick and starts echoing in my head. 

  “Anna!” I shout it out loud this time and run towards the car that is being tried, ignoring the stranger. With all the speed, I grab the handle of the driver’s side door. The other door is totally crushed by the off-road vehicle. Anna, strapped down with a belt, lies inert. Her face, bathed in blood, rests on the dashboard, with thick red liquid running down it. I reach out to her, but something crosses my path. A warm hand tightens on my arm and pulls me away from the car.

  “Let me go!”   I growl, trying to break free.

  “We  don’t  have  time  for  this,”   says  the  boy  in  an  unnaturally  calm  voice, leading me towards the cross.

  “I said:  let go!”   I repeat even louder.  “It is necessary to call for help!” I jerk and wince, but he doesn’t even budge.

  “Calm the hell down!” Unexpectedly, he stops and lets go of my arm.  “Your friend can’t help anymore.  She has been dead for a long time!”

  “No!”   I protest in despair.  “No!”   Tears run down my cheeks, mixing with the already dried blood. “That’s not true!”   I try to deceive myself. The pain… only now I feel it. But it’s not the wounds I’ve sustained, it’s not the bruises or scratches. It’s my heart. I feel some rough paw mercilessly clamping down on it tighter and tighter. It wants to tear it from my chest, wants to crush it, tear it into tiny pieces.“No …”  My voice trembles.  It is squeaky and so quiet that I can barely hear it myself. I fall to my knees, burying my face in my hands.  I sob like a small child.  I’m indifferent to the fact that I’m not alone.

  “Get up, Alex!”   he orders me in a stern tone.  “We have to get out of here! Now!” I don’t move from my seat. “Alex!” he growls.

  “As if, why should I go with you?  I don’t even know you!”   I burble to him. “It’s all your fault!  Your fucking fault!  I should call the police…”

  “They won’t take long to get here,” he announces, ignoring my words. “Don’t put my patience to the test and finally move your ass! We need to get out of here!” I swallow my saliva nervously. I really don’t know what to do. Anna is dead and nothing is going to change that, but that doesn’t mean I can easily accept it. “I give you exactly five seconds to voluntarily get on the motorcycle,”   he states and takes a seat on the cross seat himself.

  “And then what? You’ll ride away, leaving the poor, terrified and helpless girl alone in the middle of nowhere?” I chuckle mindlessly, feeling like a total idiot. “Why would you even save me from this gang,” I point to the place where a few minutes ago a group of thugs who attacked me stood, “if my life doesn’t matter much to you?”

The boy sighs tiredly and shakes his head, staring at the handlebars of the motorcycle.

  “No one is talking about leaving you for dead, you poor, scared, helpless girl,” he replies with clearly perceptible sarcasm, then glances at the watch fastened around his wrist. “Last second, baby. If you don’t want to lose consciousness right away, I would advise you to finally listen to me. Believe me, I’ve never hit a woman before, but since there’s no other way,” he shrugs his shoulders, “well, there’s always that first time, right?” I feel like I’m about to jump into an abyss. My heart is pounding like crazy, and my veins are starting to burn as the blood circulates faster and faster in them. I have to calm down to keep from passing out. I have to think soberly. I have to make a decision, and I realize that once I make it, there will be no turning back. Anger, fear, feelings of helplessness and nervousness begin to mix together, forming a dangerous whole that is ready to explode at any moment. “Time is up,”  he chuckles, slowly getting up from the motorcycle. I clench my fists, driving my nails into my palms.

  “Agree,”  I choke out.

I clench my teeth so hard that my jaw slowly pulses with pain. I squint my eyes and take one deep breath before getting on the motorcycle. I grab onto the back of the cross seat and wait for us to get moving.

  “Is  life  unkind  to  you?”    he asks with  raised eyebrows, glancing over his shoulder at me. When I don’t respond, he grabs my hands and wraps them around his waist. “Don’t let go,” he orders, looking ahead, then puts his hands on the steering wheel. These are the last words I hear from him. The next moment, he fires up the engine and pushes off with his foot, setting the motorcycle in motion. The squeal of the tires makes me shiver. The boy makes a sharp turn, brushing a finger of his right hand against the body of the car in which Anna lies. The car is devoured in a flash by hungry, flickering flames. I don’t scream, I don’t say anything, I don’t make a sound. I remain silent, trying to convince myself that this is necessary, that this is the only way out. The raging fire consumes everything in a flash, leaving not a trace behind. Anna disappears, and the fact that she lived all alone makes me realize that no one will notice her disappearance - at least not right away. It’s probably only when she doesn’t show up for work on Monday that anyone will start to worry about her, which still doesn’t mean that anyone will get the idea that something bad has happened to her and notify the police. They will surely think that she got sick and most simply forgot to call. I hide my face in my boyfriend’s cold leather jacket and close my eyes, from which tears flow incessantly. What will happen to me? Where are we going? Who is the mysterious stranger? For what reasons did he decide to save my life? The questions are growing, giving me a headache. Suddenly, we turn abruptly and at full speed off the main road into a narrow, uneven path leading through a dark forest. I don’t have my helmet on, which further makes me nervous and doesn’t allow me to calm down one bit. I’m sure my grip has become almost murderous in the meantime. I’m surprised that he hasn’t lost his breath yet. My head is literally glued to his back, and my butt is suffering more and more with each hop of the motorcycle. Every time the wheels of the crossover break away from the rocky ground, I feel like I’m going to land right on my face. I tightly clench my eyelids, making it impossible for me to inspect the terrain we are on. The bruises on my body don’t let me forget myself. I suppose this is how professional boxers feel after a murderous fight with a much stronger opponent. My lips are burning from dryness, and the place where the gang boss cut my lip is unpleasantly pinching. A sweet-metallic aftertaste overpowers my esophagus. I’m not sure, but I think I have a broken rib. Is it possible that I´m still breathing and conscious despite this? It’s probably just a contusion, but why on earth does it have to hurt so much? About an hour passes, or at least I think it does, when the motorcycle finally slows down. I cautiously open my eyes to look around. It doesn’t do me any good, I have no clue where we are. All I see are dense, tall trees and bushes. The boy stops and puts his right foot on the ground, thus supporting the motorcycle. I immediately take my hands off him, and he reaches into the inside pocket of his jacket and takes out his cell phone. He taps something on the screen, which is the only source of light, then puts the phone to his ear. We’re in the total middle of nowhere, in some bush-covered wilderness. There is no house here, at least not in sight. So I can’t fathom what he meant when he asked someone to open. There is nothing to open here! Beautiful, simply wonderful. It wasn’t enough that he was a murderer, no… that would have been too easy. I must have come across a mentally ill, fucking psychopath. I’m beginning to regret my choice, I could have thrown myself right into running away. Well, but after all, he didn’t leave me many options anyway. In any case, I will probably end up dead, and my body will be cut into pieces and thrown into some river to get rid of the evidence. What am I even thinking about? Why would he go to all that trouble and cut me into pieces when he can snap his fingers and turn me into a pile of dust. I shake my head vigorously, chasing away pessimistic thoughts. I order myself to take myself in hand and face what I’m about to encounter. The leaves lying right in front of us start to tremble unexpectedly, which looks like an earthquake is coming. After a while, the ground slides slightly, revealing a narrow entrance to the underground.

  “What the hell,”  I mumble, greedily taking air into my lungs.

The boy sets the motorcycle engine in motion again, and I instinctively embrace him at the waist. We slide down an almost vertical ramp, then brake  sharply, making a one hundred and eighty-degree turn. A cloud of smoke forms around us. A solid-looking platform rises with a deafening, quiet squeak. It now forms part of the steel ceiling.

  “You can let go now.”   The boy’s indifferent voice snaps me out of my reverie, and a blotch of crimson spreads across my face.

Only now I notice that I´m still clinging to him. I take my hands and jump away from the motorcycle, taking a few extra steps backward. My legs don’t feel very good, to tell the truth, my whole body doesn’t feel good. My stomach rises dangerously to my throat, and a fine mist appears in front of my eyes, making it difficult to see. I try to breathe deeply to oxygenate my panicked brain as quickly as possible. Inhale, exhale, Alex. Inhale, exhale, I repeat in my head, as if I were a doctor and talking to my patient. I feel strangely heavy, I seem to weigh twice as much as usual. I have to sit down somewhere, rest, otherwise I will lose consciousness, and I want to avoid this at all costs. I don’t know where I´m.  I don’t know who I’m with.

  “One!”   I hear a female voice coming from a long corridor.

A tall, slim girl with the figure of a model is just running towards us. She has short black hair, which forms a beautiful-looking mess on her head, and her blue eyes further emphasize her uncommon beauty. Unexpectedly, she throws herself at the brunette standing next to me and hangs around his neck like a small child. I have the irresistible impression that he does not notice me at all.

  “Uhu …” I gasp quietly, leaning with my hands on my slightly bent knees. 

Out of the corner of my eye I observe the arriving girl. She looks concerned, but at the same time happy.

  “I’m fine, Two”  announces the boy, catching her wrists and moving away slightly to create more space between them.

  “Is it really her?”   asks the stranger in a melodious voice and looks at me with obvious curiosity and excitement. She looks at me, moving her eyes up and down, like a scanner recording every detail.

  “It looks like it,”  the boy admits, twisting his nose, then crosses his arms over his chest. What the hell does he mean? I’m slowly getting fed up with this. Since he took me here and has no intention of killing me, I guess I deserve some explanation? If I don’t get one right away, they’ll regret me being here. I trusted him, which was probably the most unwise decision I ever made. It is possible that I got myself into even more trouble. It’s possible that a better option would have been to call the police and stay at the scene. Anna, I recall her image from memory and feeling an unpleasant shudder piercing my body like a thousand sharp daggers. I ignore the fact that I can barely hold myself up and am panting as if having an asthma attack. I gather the rest of my strength, straighten up and with a wobbly step move towards the brunet.

  “You!”   It was supposed to be a scream, but something more like a moan came out.

  “Take  her  and  do  something  before  she  passes  out,  or  worse,  vomits  and stains  our  floor.” He  didn’t  even  look  at  me,  which inexplicably  hurt  me deeply, and yet I don’t even know him.

  “Don’t you think you owe me some answers?” I ask and try to sound stern at the same time. I could swear that I literally feel myself turning pale. The boy sighs cynically, and the right corner of his mouth wanders upward. “Did I just say something funny and not even notice it?” I burble.

If only I had a little more strength, I would have punched him right away. I wonder how he would feel in my place? Lost, confused, left with a mountain of questions.

  “You’ll get your answers,” he rolls his eyes, “but first get some rest and let Two bandages you up. What good are your answers if you can faint at any moment?”

  “Come with me, Alex.” The short-haired girl carefully places her hand on my shoulder and bestows on me an incredibly sympathetic smile, which, strangely enough, warms my heart and gives me hope. I just nod, not wanting to say more. I’m afraid that along with the words, something else might come out of me. I throw a murderous glance at the boy, who has just started to walk away from us, disappearing into the second corridor, after which I let myself be led by an unknown girl.

                                                                         ***

The place we are in resembles a giant underground bunker. The walls, floor and ceiling are made of steel. Neon-bright lamps flash over our heads from time to time. They don’t give off much light, but enough to see the path we’re taking. My clothes are completely destroyed. There are holes, rips and dirt everywhere. The material of my jeans has been torn off at the knees, and my skin is badly lacerated. I wrap my arms around myself. Even though I’m wearing a jacket, I’m starting to freeze through the prevailing cold. With each exhalation, white warm steam flies out of my mouth. I’m shivering. We stop in front of one of the many narrow steel doors. A biometric lock is embedded above the handle. The girl places her hand on it, over which a red scanner immediately passes. A moment later, I hear a deafening click, and the door opens. We step inside. It’s the most ordinary room. There is everything there that should be: a bed, a small table, two chairs and a small desk, and next to it stands a closet with the door open wide, filled to the brim with clothes.

  “Sit down,”  the stranger asks, pointing to a bed against the wall.

I don’t protest, I’ve been dreaming about it for a good few dozen minutes. I contentedly rest on the soft but rather thin mattress. The girl grabs a chair and moves it to the bed. She sits down on it and starts looking at me again. She has kindness, warmth and something I can’t describe painted on her face. She looks like a good soul who you can always rely on, who will always support you and always give you a helping hand.

  “I know that this situation is probably beyond you,” she finally begins. “We thought you knew at least a little about us. We didn’t expect you to have no idea about anything.”

  “I don’t understand,”  I whisper, unable to afford more.

  “Well, yes.”  She  lowers her gaze.  “I would be confused, too, if I were you.”

Confused is an understatement, it goes through my mind, but I don’t say it out loud.  I don’t want to alienate the only person who, for the time being, seems peacefully disposed towards me and ready to give explanations.

  “Give me your hands,”  she asks, making me even more confused.  “You don’t have to be afraid of anything, I just want to help.”

Without  further  ado,  I  extend  both  hands,  catching  her  delicate,  small hands.

  “I guess that you have managed to notice that One isn’t an ordinary boy.”

  “There is no hiding it,”  I reply shyly.

  “Don’t be frightened,”  she warns, looking at me in such a way as if she is afraid that I’m about to burst and disappear like a soap bubble. I swallow my saliva nervously, but I don’t move away. “I can make the wounds of those I touch heal faster,”  she explains. Suddenly, I feel a warm, pleasant shiver run through my whole body. The pain in the rib area eases. The same goes for the rest of the injured areas. I involuntarily open my mouth in an expression of astonishment, and my eyes grow unnaturally large. I’m not sure whether I should be surprised or horrified. “I hope I helped at least a little.” She strokes my hands with her thumbs. I look at her with skeptical eyes, still unable to believe what she has done.

  “I thought nothing would be able to amaze me anymore,” I admit, smiling at her gratefully.  “But this …”  I look down at our hands.  “Thank you,”  I whisper uncertainly.

  “Since you’re feeling a little better, I listen.”   She shrugs her shoulders, lets go of me and leans back comfortably in the chair.  “Ask whatever you want.”

  “Who are you?”   I chuckle.  Hundreds of questions swirl in my head, but I start with what I think are the most factual ones.

  “I’m Two and I have slightly different DNA from normal people,” she explains. I can feel her nervousness as she swallows her saliva occasionally and wanders her eyes around the room. “No one quite knows why we are the way we are, but the fact that we each have some skill, gift, or whatever else you want to call it, makes people interested in us and our ilk who you would rather not know.”

  “The men who attacked us?”   I ask, although I know the answer.

  “They were just pawns in the hands of those who are looking for us,”   she claims, smiling sadly. I remain silent, taking advantage of Sebastian’s tactics, waiting patiently for her to continue speaking. I feel that this is just the beginning of something I don’t want to be a part of at any cost. “They are called eagles,” she announces. “They seek out everyone with rare DNA and bring them in.” She clenches her teeth for a moment. I see pain and fear in her eyes. “I don’t remember how old I was when they found me. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember anything that happened before I got to Eagles,” she admits in a trembling voice. “You have no idea what we had to go through.”

She  abruptly  breaks  off.   A  few  minutes  pass,  when  I  decide  to  break  the awkward silence and ask a second question, despite the fact that I didn’t get a satisfactory answer to the first one anyway. To the naked eye, it is clear that it’s not easy for a girl to talk about her past. To some extent, I know what she feels. Talking about my parents and what happened to them doesn’t come lightly to me, either.

  “Why am I here?  What do you want from me?  And what did those guys want?”   From one question, they make three.

  “I thought so, he didn’t tell you,”  she states, shaking her head.  “Well, as if he didn’t look at it, he wasn’t sure it was really you.”

  “Do you mean One?” I ask, and at the utterance of his “name,” I automatically wonder if it’s some kind of nickname.

  “Yes, I mean One,”  she confirms.

  “Will you tell me his real name?”   I ask cautiously, not wanting to offend her.  “Of course, if you don’t want to…”

  “It’s not like that.”   She pulls her lips tightly together.  “These ARE our real names,”  she announces, running her eyes away from me.

  “It’s okay,”  I mumble quietly, not sure if I can take her word for it.

The girl just shrugs her shoulders, saying nothing more on the subject.  She slowly rises from her chair and takes a seat next to me.

  “Do you live alone?”  she asks unexpectedly. She moves to the wall and leans his back against it, curling his legs up so that he can put his arms around them.

  “With my grandmother,” I reply, and at the same moment I realize that the poor senior citizen is probably dying of fear for me. I’m a damned selfish person….

  “Call her,” she asks, pulling her cell phone out of her pants pocket. She smiles gently again. “We will finish our conversation later. We can’t have the police start looking for you. That will immediately draw their attention.”

After a short thought, I take the phone and dial the number to the house. Only a few seconds pass before Grandma answers. Trying to sound confident, I explain to her that I’m going to spend the night at a friend’s house and there is nothing to worry about. I don’t mention a word about Anna. I guess I’m convincing enough, because the old lady accepts my message with Stoic calm. I end the call, hand the girl her cell phone and take a deep breath, then slowly let the air out through my nose.

  “I want to know everything,”  I announce in a firm tone, and I feel that this conversation Won’t be an easy one.

  “One took you here because after today’s incident we think you are only safe with us,” she states. “Here they certainly won’t look for you, and even if they went that far, they won’t find anything but dried leaves. We are protected by an invisible barrier that one of us created. For ordinary people, this place doesn’t exist.”

  “I still don’t understand anything,” I admit. “After all, I’m not like you, there is nothing special about me. I’m the most normal, boring person, who until now has only read about people like you and One in books. What could they possibly want from me?”

  “No, you aren’t like us,” she confirms, “but you have more in common with us than you think.” She takes a short pause and closes her eyelids for a moment, and a second later the words fly out of her mouth like machine gun shots. “Eagles matched each of us with another person who acted as our, how best to put it, guardian? Yes, that’s probably the most fitting word.” She glances in my direction and continues, “The guardians form, in combination with us, a perfect whole. Each of them is immune to the power of the partner, who feels an unexplained need to protect him. The Guardians are the only ones who can manipulate our actions, which means that each of us complies with their demands without hesitation. Each of us has only one Guardian. Eagles were able to find almost all of them and pair them up,” she explains. She sighs and, with a nervous flick of her hand, brushes away the strands of short-cut hair falling into her eyes. “I want you to understand me well, so I’ll try to explain everything as clearly as I can. Caregivers are not the first-best people, chosen by the Organization. It’s more complicated than that. For every person with rare DNA, there is only one person, which makes it not at all easy to find her, bring her to the Quarters and connect and pair her with the right partner.” Her hands form into fists. “But Eagles have their ways. The  Organization’s  members  are  high-profile,  important  figures  with unimaginably large sums in their accounts. You wouldn’t believe how far their power reaches.” She helplessly leans her head against the wall and stares dully at the ceiling. “From their first days at eagles Headquarters, the Guardians are instilled with their tasks. They are brainwashed, which ends up being blindly following the Organization, obedient employees. Eagles can´t afford to have any of the Guardians use their partner for their  own needs or, worse, turn against the Organization. As I said, almost every one of us has a Guardian. However, there have been exceptions, and One is one of those exceptions. Eagles was unable to find his partner. Believing the rumors, the person they were looking for suddenly disappeared. I once even overheard that the child’s parents didn’t want to agree to give him up, and when Organization soldiers broke into their house to take the child by force, they found no one. You must know that eagles spared no expense when it came to Project X. They had enough money to bribe most of the families, and many well-trained soldiers who were used as a last resort when all else had failed.” She turns his head toward me and pierces me with a look of big eyes. “Both Guardians and people with rare DNA are brought into the Organization as young children, so it is easier for them to manipulate you. At the outset, everyone is stripped of their memories. This takes place in a laboratory. The whole procedure is handled by doctors and professors, whom we call Memo. Later, depending on our abilities, we are divided into two Sections. Section One consists of people similar to me. We’re not harmful, and our power doesn´t harm anyone. Section Two is a completely different caliber. Its members undergo murderous training and training, and there are constant visits to the laboratory. People assigned to the Second Section are made into merciless soldiers. By some means, they deprive them of their feelings. A bunch of highly educated doctors inject them with various substances designed to turn off human emotions. The Second Section is trained mainly for one purpose. Their job is to liquidate. One belonged to this very section. My heart doesn´t want to calm down, on the contrary, it keeps accelerating. Although I´m cold, my palms are sweating, as if it were at least thirty degrees here. When I look into the girl’s eyes, filled with sadness and pain, I feel the need to take her in my arms and hug her. I feel sorry for her. I can’t do otherwise. I can’t even imagine what her life must have been like. I already want to ask how they managed to get out of the Organization, when she starts to speak next: “What I’m going to say now won’t be easy for you and will probably turn your life so far upside down, but it can’t be ignored. I was almost sure that your parents warned you about eagles. I thought they told you at least the essentials. Apparently, they wanted to keep you as far away from the whole mess as possible and endow you with a normal, happy childhood. You have no idea how I envy you.”

Suddenly, she reaches out and unexpectedly grabs my hand.  Her lips tremble slightly.

  “The person eagles was looking for,” she begins in a thin voice, almost whispering, “the person who was supposed to cooperate with One… is sitting right in front of me,” she finally chokes out, and I freeze.

I’m sure that for a good few minutes I forget how to breathe. All my muscles tense up tightly. I have no idea what to say, how to react? I don’t even know what to think. There is total chaos in my head. I keep waiting to finally wake up, because this must be a dream, this can’t be really happening. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I can’t escape from this cursed nightmare. I’m stuck here for good.

  “It´s some kind of joke,”  I mumble, driving my gaze to the floor.

My eyes begin to pinch, a sign that I haven’t blinked once since the girl said the last sentence.

  “I’m sorry, Alex,”  she says, stroking my back.

  “But…”

The blue-eyed girl stands up and looks at me with compassion written on her face.

  “Believe me,” she says in a soft voice. “I would love to take this burden away from you and tell you that it’s a mistake, that you’re not the one we think you are, but…” She pauses, catching some air, then continues, walking to the door: “We are convinced of this. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she repeats and grabs the handle.

  “Wait.” I reach out to her, pulling myself off the bed.

Is she going to leave me alone now? After what I have learned? It’s strange and unlike me, but at this point, solitude is the last thing I need. It’s too much, too much at once. Anna is dead, and I… I don’t know who I really am anymore.

  “One  should  come  here  right  away,”   she  announces.   “He  is  the  one  you should talk to.”Before I have time to answer anything, the girl leaves the room.