Serephyne lay asleep in her room on the third upper floor. Her room looked normal although empty, or maybe, it was just too large. It had a wardrobe, an inbuilt bathroom, her study table, a dressing mirror and makeup seat, and some of her other ladyly staff.
She lay curled into herself, her brown silk pajamas shimmering faintly in the dimly lit room. Just a few seconds later, she jolted awake from the noise as the sound of falling walls and ceiling kept echoing all the way.
What was that? An explosion? In the city? Or are we under attack? She thought, then quickly shook her head, trying to ignore the thought.
Slowly, she rose from her bed then moved to the door and turned the handle to the side, but it wouldn't open. "It's locked? Great, at just the perfect time."
She raised her head toward the ceiling and shouted, half expecting someone to hear half not. "Hey, if anyone is listening, please open the door. I need to get out?"
But there was no response, or any sign that someone was listening. Then she remembered about the children. "Oh no, the kids. I hope they are okay?"
Since when did they start locking my door? She thought.
The sound kept rippling from the ground, loud and thunderous, sending vibrations under her feet. The ground she stood on threatening to collapse under.
She understood she had no time to waste waiting for anyone to open the door. So slowly she pressed her index on the keyhole, then filled it with ice and forged from the hole a key, then twisted it and opened the door.
Running back to her side bed drawer, she pulled it open and inside were two pistol guns. One was silver, the other onyx black. The silver one was a normal gun with normal bullets, while the onyx black one was an Aether gun. Its bullets were made of Aether which is obtained from Essencia Crystals found deep within the dungeons. These Aether bullets are quickly effective on the Malgeds.
"When I first came here, they emphasized that I keep these with me. I might need them."
Without hesitation, she bolted outside her room in pajamas, looking for the kids. She ran into the hallway, then veered to the left, and in front of her stood the elevator, but she ignored it and veered to the right.
What if it broke on the way? She thought.
"Where are the damn stairs? Aren't they supposed to be right next to the elevator?" She muttered, slowing down as she turned right again.
The corridors felt like a maze but her instincts didn't know that. She finally found it and ran down the first lower floor.
The stairs delayed her arrival, so she released ice covering the steps, and with a balance in her footing, she slid from the second floor to the third, each turn a smooth movement.
She stood in the hallway looking at the side to side lined-up doors, the smoke escaping from the opening gaps under the doors. My room wasn't among these ones though, mine was behind the last door to her left.
Then a groan echoed faintly at a far distance from the heart of the city. Her head snapped, but the facility was so reserved there wasn't even a window to peek outside. She decided the first thing was to check if the kids were okay.
Everthing came back to me in that moment. [Now, I remember. That day, the city bled again like never before. The Malgeds attacked the city with unruly rage.]
Oh no. What happened here. Serephyne thought, calling out to the children one by one as she reached to the doors asking if they are okay. "Hey, are you guys okay? I heard an explosion from this side."
She tucked the guns behind her waist into her pants and tried to open the first door to her right, but it wouldn't badge.
"Lucien, Auran, Evren, Coriander! Guys, are you okay? Sylas, Maim, Kaelen! Anyone, say something. She tried the one to he left, but still the same, then she darted to the one next to it but they were all locked.
The smoke that kept escaping under the door is what scared her more, but the walls were still standing.
She cursed four time, then with no other choice left, she decided to break it open. She opened both her palms forward toward the first door from her right. With a roar, she bursted it open with a heavy ice block.
When she got in, the child in that room was was seated by the wall, leaning close to the door as he tried to crawl to the door after hearing Serephyne's call.
"Oh no, Maim! Are you okay?" She gasped, freezing for a moment at the sight of Maim's broken leg.
She carried him out and sat him in the hallway then went for the others using Maim's room as the easiest passage. The ceilings had collapsed revealing electric wires and pipes. Smoke, dust and rubble filled the space, some bulbs half flickering.
In each room, either the child was unconscious, the other curled in the corner with fear and teary eyes, the other bruised and wounded, the other burried under the rubble, the other badly bleeding, another the leg broken, fingers or hand. Each child was affected in a different way. Serephyne could barely hold the ache in her chest.
No. I don't want to remember this. Please. If it's a dream someone should wake me up.
Suddenly a memory surfaced.
-----
"Fiel honey, your father is soon leaving to work, come have breakfast with him."
But I didn't respond. I stood in my room my shirt off and my overoll pulled to my waist, smile so happily like I had just learnt the fun in smile. This was me three years back, I was two years old back then. My room had everything a child needs, and even that which a child doesn't need but persistently keeps them.
The door creaked open and I quickly hide my left hand behind me and turned to face the door. A beautiful lady walked in, a warm smile tagging on her lips, wearing a chocolate top-dress and a pale green skirt beneath and an epron with a fox image etched on it. She was my mother, Nyra.
She came closer and bent slightly. "What are you hiding there, Daddy's boy?" She asked, pulling the hands of my blue overall to fix them back.
In this memory, I could clearly see her face. She had long black unruly hair that coiled in distant curls. Her irises had gone from black to ash grey. To any one looking, they would think she was blind, yet it was just her illness eating her up.
[Back then, I used to think her eyes were the most beautiful and unique. With no idea that they didn't change naturally. But I would still give anything to look into them again.]
She pulled my hand forward. "Show me your hand." And realised I was holding a feather.
"A feather? Why do do you have a feather?"
I grinned, then settled it into her hand. "I was trying to wake up my friend."
Her brows creased, "What friend?"
I turned around and pointed at my back, "Here."
She was surprised, but she knew I was talking about Vanik'shur the demon who chose my body as its vessel. Although, at that time, he could never use it even if he wanted to.
She smiled, then knelt on the ground. "So, this friend of yours, what are they like?" Her voice was calm and gentle. If anything, one would have expected her to worry and get worked up over that fact that her soon was talking to a demon with nothing but desire for destroyed. And that he was calling it a friend too.
I began to happily describe Vanik'shur as she nodded along.
"He is huge, he has red small eyes but wide almost to the ears. And… and he has big horns, and his body is red and black."
She gentle stroke my hair then lifted the front strandes to take a closer look into my eyes. "I see, so you have already met him! What did he say?"
"He said, I am a good boy, that he has a castle and that he will take me there to see it one day."
"Oh really, what else did he say bout my sweet boy." She asking, pinching at my cheeks.
"Oh, oh, he said I am his only friend and that he will always be good to me. And that I should tell you that I love you." I smiled, the held her with both my small hands and gave her a kiss on her forehead.
Believe it or not, my mother was genuinely happy after hearing about my friend even when she knew she had to tell me not to trust him. She just let us be.
Gently, she returned the kiss. "Wow, honey know I'm eager to meet your friend. But if you keep waking him up every morning, he might catch the morning cold." She muttered while her hands gently tickled me.
My giggles and her daughters echoed through the walls of the house, and I bet someone walking outside was able to hear them.
Suddenly, my Adult voice echoed in the memory, deep and biter.
[I want to feel this again. I want to laugh with her, to see her beautiful smile. Was that too much to ask.]
"Calm down honey. You didn't need to remember that but as it is, they might need all your childhood memories because they can't tell which piece has exactly what they need."
"Who is they?"
«Just focus, junior Ashenhive."
-----
The kid who's room was right behind mine didn't make it, the rest were surprisingly still alive although not all could walk. When the wall to my right exploded, it hit directly into that boys room then bent into the rest along the line.
Serephyne forgot about me, she had no idea one kid was still in his room. I was still seated in the same pose in the rubble, my legs folded, my hands still holding the phone, its screen broken by a fallen rubble and my eye lids were still closed.
Drewman also lay unconscious in the hallway to my left. He was hit by the falling ceiling while in his way from my room back to his office
After lining all of them out in the hallway, a question popped up in Seraphyne's mind. Where do I take them?
Then Lynk's voice echoed from the hallway speakers. I'm calling out to all the doctors. All the children from the first and the second Unite need to be transferred to the underground third Unit. Something is coming this way, you all need to act with heist.
What? Something is coming? First and second Unit, does that mean there are still more other children in here? Where is the third underground Unit anyway? This whole place is like a maze. Seraphyne thought, looking around for any clues.
The White Unit facility had a strange structure that even us the children didn't know.