CHAPTER 2

ELARA

"…from the pitch blackness, bright golden eyes emerged, groaning slowly at me, his groans forming words that sounds so much like…

Mine…

~~~

A sound woke me up before the dream could finish.

I shot upright, chest heaving with rapid, shallow breaths, my comforter twisted uselessly around my legs. I dragged a trembling hand down my face, trying to calm my heart which was slamming against my ribs like it was trying to break free, but no amount of slow breathing seemed to convince it that I was safe.

My room was pitch black, probably due to electricity being cut off again due to the storm, but for a disorienting moment, I couldn’t be certain I had woken up at all, it felt like I was still in my dreams, especially when I heard it again…

The same sound that woke me up from sleep.

A low growl…

It sounded so faint, and distant, so faint that I am actually surprised it woke me from sleep.

The sound stopped just as quickly as it had happened.

Trying to figure out where it was coming from, I turned my head slowly towards the ceiling vent.

Silence.

My pulse hammered in my ears as I waited, trying to figure out if my mind was playing games with me, only that it wasn't.

The sound came again, brief and so faint, swallowed by the metal walls.

I swung my legs off the bed, reaching for my cellphone to turn on the torchlight, even before my feet touched the ground. With slow shaky steps, I walked towards the metal walls and placed my palm flat against it, listening slowly as if I might feel something through it.

The hairs along my arms rose as my body drew closer to the wall, my body leaning into it as if I am being pulled to it, almost as if I am being watched by someone or something at the moment.

Swallowing deeply, I recoiled, and at the same time, power came back, lighting the room and I almost laughed at myself, feeling profoundly foolish at the moment.

"This place is getting to you, Elara,” I muttered, pressing my fingers to my temple.

I turned away from the wall and forced myself back to bed.

It wasn’t entirely an unreasonable thing to say. The facility did house live specimens, things that breathed and moved and, presumably, made noise. But not in any division I had clearance for, and certainly not on any floor I had ever set foot in.

Everything I worked with had long since stopped breathing. Preserved. Sectioned. Reduced to labeled fragments behind glass.

And the live specimens , whatever they were, were kept nowhere near the residential floors. Everyone knew that. It was policy. It was logic.

So there was no rational explanation for a growl filtering through a ceiling vent at two in the morning.

Right?

I groaned and dropped onto the mattress, pulling the comforter over my head like that might shield me from my own thoughts. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed my mind to go blank, to drift back to sleep, but not back to those golden eyes that seemed to be always waiting for me on the other side of sleep.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

****************************

"Elara?"

I pulled back from the microscope and offered Janet a small smile as she appeared at the entrance of my station. She was my supervisor, technically, though calling her that always felt slightly absurd. She was my best friend first, and had been for years. The title was just paperwork.

“What’s up?”

She walked in and leaned against the edge of my table, arms folded, and looked at me the way only someone who knows your face too well can.

“You look horrible.”

I huffed a quiet laugh and dropped my eye back to the microscope. “Thank you so much for that keen observation, Janet.”

“When you weren’t in the data room this morning, I almost let myself believe you’d finally taken my advice.” She tilted her head. “You know, take a few days off. Actual rest. Imagine.”

“Tempting.”

It wouldn’t change anything, though. That was the honest truth I kept to myself.

Taking a day off is not going to change anything. I won’t still be able to have a sound sleep without having those strange dreams, so what’s the point?

“How much longer on that one?” Janet nodded toward the specimen beneath the lens.

I leaned back, removed the slide, returned the sample carefully to its container, and peeled off my latex gloves. “Just finished, actually.” I set the gloves aside and looked up at her. “Why? Do you need something from me?”

Janet pushed off the table and straightened, and something in her expression shifted, just slightly, just enough for me to notice.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about,” she said. “But not here.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I arched a brow at her. “Am I in trouble?”

She laughed softly. “Do you think you are?”

I considered it for a half second. “Not particularly.”

“Then wash your hands and come with me.”

I nodded and crossed to the sink, scrubbed and sanitized carefully, then fell into step behind her as she led me out of the specimen room.

***************

Janet’s office was something I quietly prayed and wished for every time I stepped into it. It sat behind a wide glass partition, elevated just enough to overlook the entire main lab floor. From up here, you could see everything without anyone necessarily knowing they were being seen.

Someday. I always told myself, someday I’ll be promoted to and I’ll have a space of my own.

“Have a seat,” she said, gesturing to the chair across from her desk.

I sat, folding my hands in my lap, and watched as she settled into her own chair with the unhurried ease of someone who owned the room.

She leaned back slightly, fingers interlaced on the desk, and studied me in a silence that stretched just a beat too long.

I shifted. Smiled, though it came out more nervous than I intended. “Are you going to say something, or are we just staring at each other?”

“I need a favor.”

My brows pulled together. “Why does that already sound suspicious?”

A small laugh escaped her. “It’s temporary. And before you say no,” she held up a hand, “ you’re one of very few people here that I actually trust to handle it properly.”

I stared at her. “That,” I said slowly, “somehow makes it sound more suspicious.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

She ignored my comment entirely. “There’s a specimen in containment that requires monitoring.”

I stilled. “Containment isn’t my division.” I study cellular behavior, adaptation, mutation, and microscopic responses. Not the creatures themselves. Never the creatures themselves.

“I’m very much aware of that, Elara.”

“Then why me?”

She tilted her head, shifting her gaze slightly off mine, the way she did when she was choosing her words with more care than usual. “Because the staff currently assigned to it are… limited in their approach.”

“That’s a polite way of saying incompetent.”

“Overly cautious,” she corrected. “Either way, I need observational data that hasn’t been filtered through fear or personal bias.”

I leaned back in my chair, studying her face. “And you think I’m not biased?”

“I think you’re curious,” she said, “and careful. You notice things other people miss.”

Janet rarely asked anyone for favors. It just wasn’t in her nature. And beyond that, she helped me get this job when I needed it the most. I wasn’t in the habit of forgetting things like that, friend or not.

“So what exactly would I be doing?”

“Delivering food,” she said. “Recording behavioral responses. Nothing invasive.”

I blinked at her. “Meals,” I repeated flatly. “You’re asking me to bring it meals. Which means it’s alive.”

She said nothing.

Which was answer enough.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, turning it over. “What kind of specimen requires armed containment and a personal delivery service?” I murmured, more to myself than to her.

“A classified one.”

I exhaled slowly. “You’re not giving me much to work with here, Janet.”

“You don’t need much,” she said. “Observe. Report. That’s all.”

It sounded simple, too easy, which was precisely what unsettled me about it.

“And this is temporary?”

“A few days,” she said. “A week at most.”

“…Alright,” I said after a beat of silence.

Janet gave a nod, reached into her drawer, and produced a slim access card, placing it on the desk between us.

I looked at it without touching it. “You told me to stay off Level Nine when I first started here.”

“And now I’m giving you the clearance to be there.” She held my gaze. “That’s the difference.”

It didn’t make me feel any better. Not even slightly.

Her expression softened, just enough to remind me she was my friend before she was anything else. “If anything feels wrong, you come straight to me. Understood?”

I picked up the card. “Understood.”

*************

The elevator ride down felt longer than the distance warranted.

I stood alone inside the car, watching the level indicators blink to life one by one.

Level Seven.

Level Eight.

A pause, longer than it should have been.

Level Nine.

The doors slid open with a soft ping, and I stepped out into the gaze of two armed guards positioned on either side of the access door. I recognized immediately that they were not our usual facility security. The way they stood, the weapons they carried, the particular blankness in their eyes, these were not building guards.

Military.

One of them extended a hand. “Access.”

I passed the card over. He scanned it, eyes cutting briefly to the screen, then handed it back without a word or a change in expression. The second guard stepped aside as the heavy door unsealed and swung open.

I walked through.

The corridor beyond was narrower than I had expected. Observation windows lined one side, though it was mostly dark, so I couldn’t see what was inside, only my reflection stared back at me.

I slowed without meaning to.

Then, from somewhere behind one of the sealed doors, I heard a sound, low yet deep, an unmistakable shift of something large adjusting its weight in a confined space. My steps faltered for half a second, my body reacting before my mind had fully processed it.

I kept walking.

At the far end of the corridor stood a final door, noticeably thicker than anything else in the facility, the kind of door that wasn’t built to keep people out, but to keep something in. Another guard stood beside it, watching my approach with pale, expressionless eyes that gave away absolutely nothing.

“Dr. Elara?”

I nodded, not quite trusting my voice.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

He studied me for a moment, then took a step closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Whatever you see in there…" he said quietly, "don't make sudden movements."

Cold sweat rolled down my spine.

Before I could respond, he turned and placed his hand against the access panel and the locks began to disengage one by one.

Finally, the door opened and he gestured for me to go in.

Taking a deep breath, I took a step forward, then another, and another, until I was inside the dark room.

The door behind me suddenly shut, startling me.

I gasped, turning around, blinking rapidly at the door, wondering why they had to close it. My eyes went back to the tray in my hand which contained the food I was supposed to feed the creature.

"Whatever is in here must be chained," I mumbled under my breath. "No need to be afraid."

I turned once again, already reaching for the red light switch when I heard a growl, low but heavy enough to rattle the tray in my hand, and from the darkness, emerged a golden-eyed creature.