Lazarus Rising

{This is an excerpt from a book I'm working on}

The Security room was a mix of electronic buzzing and banter over something inadequate. Orion had been quiet the entirety of the jog here, and I was beginning to be out of breath. He seemed unbothered. Well, not entirely; he seemed nervous. I was impressed by how well he was doing, with a minor concussion and all.

“You guys are okay, good,” Aurelia chuckles. “Red lighting, creepy as hell, y’know?”

Elijah shrugs. “I personally think it reminds me of college,” he admits, glancing at the lights, which still shine bright red.

“You went to college?” Aurelia asks.

“Almost got my criminal justice degree,” Elijah admits.

Aurelia seems mildly impressed by this.

I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t imagine Elijah being the sorta person solving murders and stuff, but, hey, he can’t remember half the stuff that’s happened, like why he has those SD cards, so—

The door swings open, and blurs of grey move quickly inside. I realize their men, not shadows, though the guns in their hands did well to make me take a nervous step away. I watch in silent horror as The Director steps inside the room.

“You four are being charged for treason, breaking and entering, damage of government property, and a few other crimes,” The Director says.

“What?!” Lavinia and I say in disbelief.

Before The Director can get a word out, Aurelia quietly says, “What do you mean, four?”

I glance over my shoulder at her and realize she hadn’t even been looking at The Director. I follow her gaze and stare in disbelief at Orion. I watch as he lowers his gaze to the floor, reluctant to meet our gaze.

“You fucking bastard, Orion!” Elijah shouts, stepping forward. He seems unfazed when a gun lifts, aiming at his chest, though I prayed they were simply stun guns rather than actual guns. They looked a bit too different compared to the usual weapons security roamed with.

“Elijah—“ Aurelia says quietly, her gaze unfocused as she clearly tried to think, but we all knew Elijah was close to getting himself into a world of trouble.

“You’re helping him?! He’s tried to kill all of us!” Elijah shouts, ignoring Aurelia’s attempts to calm him down.

Orion swallows, his jaw tightening as he looks up, meeting Elijah’s gaze. “I don’t owe you an explanation,” Orion says, though his voice is hoarse and pained.

“That is the least that you—“ Elijah begins, his voice furious and I wanted to tell him to stop shouting, I almost had, but it was too late. Before anybody could think, a sharp crackle fills the air, a blinding flash following quickly. I flinch, stepping away only for my heel to knock against a chair. I blink, looking in front of me only to watch Elijah crumble to the ground, his body convulsing with the electric shock.

It was like Deja Vu, watching this all over again. My thoughts went numb, and the imposing realization of what had happened settled in my thoughts before I did something I hadn’t done before. This time, I reacted.

In a split second, I managed to somehow, miraculously tear the gun from the security officer beside me and aim it directly at The Director’s chest.

He raises an amused smile, clearly amused. “Ms. Lorens, do you honestly believe I think you’d—“ He stops quickly when I quickly aim at a guard to his left, pull the trigger, then back at him. I didn’t even blink.

The guard crumbles, a choked-out cry cutting off as his muscles tighten unwillingly.

Lavinia steps closer to Elijah, clearly worried about his well-being.

The Director glances at the guard before looking back at me. “Okay… Consider me all ears,” he says.

“What do you want?” I say. My hands were beginning to tremble on the gun, not from the weight but from the realization of what I was doing. I tighten my grip, and the trembling stops momentarily but returns soon after.

“To be able to go back to how everything was. Before you five got here,” The Director gestures around the room. “I’ve been playing this damned game for decades, and I’m sick of it.”

My brow furrows. Decades? What in the world was he talking about?

“Oh, you didn’t know?” The Director says. “All of this, sneaking into Sector 10, all of it, it’s happened already. Twice. Orion here knows all about it.”

I resist the urge to aim the gun and shoot Orion square in the chest and, instead, look towards him.

“You remember?” Aurelia whispers.

Orion glances at Aurelia and then back at me. “If you remembered, you’d understand,” he says.

My brow furrows, and I realize I’ve lowered the gun too late. Something cold, sharp, and burning stings into my forearm, everything going numb but burning in excruciating pain before it all went dark.

I woke slowly, though the unbearable hammering in my head made me wish I could spend a few more minutes asleep, whether it be by sedation or not. I groan, lifting my hand to my head, but my shoulder aches horribly.

“Morning, sleeping beauty,” Elijah’s voice sounds across the hall from me.

I open my eyes just barely, tilting my head slightly to look in that direction. Elijah sat on the opposite side of his cell and leaned back on the concrete wall as he offered a smile. I attempt to return the smile, but fail miserably.

Elijah chuckles as he stands up, rubbing the back of his neck before he leans up on the grey and blue bars. “Yeah, getting tased hurts… a lot,” He admits.

“I assume you have experience?” I say, referring to the first time he’d been arrested.

“Before then, actually. Ninety percent of the times it had been, the guy was just really bad at aiming,” Elijah admits.

“College?”

“Britain.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I forced myself to sit up. “And the other ten percent?” I ask.

Elijah rubs the back of his neck awkwardly before saying, “Teenage delinquency?”

I smile. “Troubled teen?” I ask.

“No,” Elijah says, shaking his head. "I never did anything; I just got grouped with the troubled teens.”

I glance at Elijah before nodding. “Are you still mad with Orion?” I ask.

Elijah shrugs, saying, “Yeah. I wanted to punch the guy, not gonna lie.”

I sighed, rubbing my eyes as I tried to shake away the exhaustion, physical and emotional, but it clung to me. “Thought about shooting him,” I admit.

Elijah laughs, clapping his hands together. “Aurelia filled me in, I think she’s getting some sleep right now,” Elijah says. “You really almost shot The Director?”

“Maybe,” I admit.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Wanted to see what he’d tell me.”

“Smart.”

“Thanks.”

“I’d have just shot him.”

“Of course you would,” I say, rolling my eyes.

Elijah laughs again, clearly still thinking about me almost shooting Orion and The Director.

I glare at Orion as he hesitantly steps into view, facing Elijah. I felt my jaw tighten in anger, but I felt my hands tremble in fear. My thoughts weren’t any easier to understand. I was furious at Orion, he’d lied, possibly for his own self. But I was terrified. Why did he lie? What was so horrible to remember that he lied?

“Lavinia and I did find what was on the SD cards,” Orion says, his voice rough and hoarse. He holds a black phone in his hand. “There were some… disturbing… pictures… on some of them,” he looks down at the phone before holding it out for Elijah to look at it.

I stand up, having an easier time getting up, before wandering over and leaning up on the cell bars. The cold metal presses against my skin, and I frown as I stare at the photo Orion showed me. It’s Aurelia, blood pooling from a stab wound in her chest.

Orion swipes the picture.

I’m staring at myself. Except this isn’t the current me; this is me from… I want to say that’s me from 2012? Yeah, my hair was cut in an undercut like that in 2012. And I’d worn those gold-rimmed glasses back in 2012 now. I only wore glasses when I read, so I hadn’t really been wearing them lately, being on the run and all.

Except I’m covered in blood. It’s on my hands, on my clothes, on my hair. Did I kill Aurelia? I thought, staring at these pictures. The mugshot it dated for 2012.

“How’s Aurelia alive then?” Elijah asks.

Orion swallows, lowering the phone as he looks back at Elijah. “Back in 2012, we tried. We tried to figure out what was happening, why it was happening, why we were here,” Orion says. “We thought it’d be so easy to do to… you— you were arrested, along with Lavinia,” Orion admits. He looks over his shoulder to me. He opens his mouth, closes it, and then says, “You were found in front of containment… with Aurelia. The blood didn’t match hers, though. Didn’t match yours either. Nobody knows whose blood was on you.”

I swallow, my stomach twisting in a knot as I force myself to ask, “Where were you?”

Orion swallows, his gaze going unfocused before he says, “I… I ended up in containment… with…” He takes a breath, closing his eyes before opening them and meeting my gaze. “With The Catalyst. For… well, for everybody else, outside, it was just thirty minutes, an hour maybe? For me? A week.”

I swallow. A week, with a fear being? It might as well have been hell.

“The Catalyst convinced you?” Elijah asks quietly.

Orion looks back in front of himself. “I…” he sighs, running his hand through his hair. I know you don’t remember anything of what happened. I just… I thought that maybe after all of that, there’d be some part of you that wouldn’t do it again. But you’ve always been too stubborn.”

There’s a pause.

“Why do you get to remember?” Elijah asks.

Orion sighs, his breathing trembling towards the end of his breath. “The Director knows. And… when I helped you a second time… he remembered The Catalyst, so… I think you can fill in the blanks. An hour is a week. Imagine an entire night.”

I grimace, crossing my arms. It’s basically two entire months there. With that horrible thing. That horrible being. No wonder Orion lied to us. I’d have lied to you if that’d happened. I understood now, but I was still furious. Except I wasn’t furious with Orion; I was furious with The Director. He made Orion go through that again. Nobody deserved something as horrible as that.

“There’s something else,” Orion admits quietly.

“Beside’s The Catalyst revelation?” Elijah asks, scoffing in disbelief.

“Yes,” Orion says, a tone as sharp as a dagger.

Elijah is quiet.

“What is it?” I ask.

Orion glances at me, quietly saying, “There’s been a kid… in the containment.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Like… a kid?” I say, my brow furrowing as I look at Orion.

“Nine years old,” Orion says simply. “The Director…” He closes his eyes, his jaw tightening before speaking, his voice whispering, “It’s not good. Kid’s been through hell… and… and…”

“And?” Elijah says, a tone of voice sticking to him like glue.

My breathing was caught in my throat as I waited.

“Kid’s spent so much time there that one of the beings have… taken a slight interest in him,” Orion admits. He swallows, clearly forcing himself to continue at this point. “The Echo. It’s… they're all the embodiment of some sorta fear. And The Echo is the fear of the past. Bad memories. Trauma, that sorta thing.”

“Of course it does,” Elijah says with a heavy sigh. “How long has the kid been there? This time?”

I inhale, fearing for the answer.

“Three months, continuous, with one-month breaks between,” Orion answers. He seemed to hate saying all of this, but he did. “And it’s been going on for three years.”

“Wouldn’t the kid be—“ I begin.

“No,” Orion says. “Time’s weird. A week passes, but you are the same as when you went in. I didn’t eat a single thing the entire time I was there, and I didn’t need to; it was still like my body was running on this world time.”

There was a long pause before anybody spoke.

“What’s the kid’s name?” Elijah asks.

“Lazarus, I believe,” Orion answers. He doesn’t have parents. He was in the foster care system.”

Elijah sighs heavily, leaning forward from where he sat on a bench. “Of course he was. Always goin’ for the kid nobody cares about,” Elijah mutters, annoyance dripping in his voice.

This piques Orion’s interest. “Were you…” He drifts off when Elijah nods.

“Yeah, dad had problems,” Elijah admits. “Bounces around for a few years. I could barely trust anybody when I got adopted; that kid won’t be caught dead with anybody.”

Orion sighs. “Well… maybe the guy who's really good with kids could help?” Orion asks.

I smile softly as I glance over to Elijah, who also seems to be smiling.

“Just ‘cause I’ve got two of my own, which doesn’t make me really good with kids,” Elijah says.

“Oh? So having an alarm set for midnight doesn’t make you good with kids?” Orion asks.

Elijah seems surprised by this, and I can’t help but smile softly. They're good at being friendly, except when they're not.