(POV - Emily Parker)
Emily and her team kept all their focus on the graphs that appeared on the monitors, updated every second. Still, it had been a while since the fluctuations stopped following any stable pattern, oscillating erratically and worryingly.
Moreover, no matter how many tis they tried to establish contact with Arthur, Victor, or Rupert, the response was always the sa. Only static signals returned through the communication channels, accompanied by distorted and indecipherable sounds, low, continuous noises that seed to carry no coherent ssage.
At this point, Emily was unknowingly biting her nails, overwheld by the anxiety tightening her chest. What exactly was happening over there? Was everyone okay? Was there anything, anything at all, she could do to help?
The questions piled up in her mind, one after another, giving her no peace. Still, all she could do was remain silent, watching from a distance as each attempt seed to fail, and the feeling of helplessness only grew.
“Maybe they’re all just dead?” a voice echoed behind Emily. The tone didn’t carry any trace of mockery or irony, it was just a blunt, raw question, filled with curiosity. There was sincerity in it, as if the person was genuinely contemplating that possibility.
Emily stopped biting her nails the mont the voice echoed through the room. Her body reacted before the thought could catch up, and she turned around abruptly, narrowing her eyes.
Right behind her, casually sitting on a control panel, was the owner of the voice. Her legs swung lightly in the air, with the carefree ease of soone in no hurry, contrasting with the tension in the air. Emily narrowed her gaze even more.
“What are you implying with that?” Emily asked, her voice firm, sharp.
The girl just shrugged and, with an utterly indifferent expression, replied: “Isn’t that the most logical conclusion? They haven’t responded in thirty minutes, and we have no idea where they are. Doesn’t all of this make you think they’re dead...?”
The figure in front of her fell silent for a mont, as though those words needed ti to settle in the air. Then the girl seed to rember sothing and added, almost absentmindedly, with a slight tilt of her head: “Oh, but that anomaly from the mission is probably still alive. She always seed... hard to kill to ”
Emily stared at the figure, identical to her sister, for a few more seconds. The heavy silence stretched between them before she sighed in resignation. She ran a hand through her hair, looked away for a mont, and then locked eyes with her again, as if trying to accept the impossible.
“Did you know you can be really annoying sotis?” she comnted, her voice low, heavy with exhaustion, yet still clear enough for the figure to hear. She stepped to the side, her heart racing, furrowing her brow: “What exactly do you want from , after all?” she continued, now with a trace of irritation mixed with confusion: “Why the hell did you show up for ? You should be dead... dead people don’t speak, they don’t look like that, and sure as hell don’t interact”
Emily’s words seed to grab the figure’s attention. Slowly, she raised her gaze and, with a cold, indifferent expression, stared back at Emily.
The face was exactly like her sister’s, sa delicate features, sa eye shape, even the familiar posture she knew so well.
Every gesture, every subtle expression, made Emily’s heart ache, bringing mories she would rather keep buried. Still, despite everything screaming otherwise, Emily was certain that this figure wasn’t her sister. It couldn’t be.
That was when the figure smiled, a slight, cornered smile, tinged with a cruel amusent. A brief sound escaped her lips, soft and teasing: “Fufu... so these are your thoughts, sister?” Her eyes glimred for a mont, as if probing sothing beyond the words: “You really want to stay dead? Have you forgotten why I died, after all... the sacrifice that brought here?”
Emily’s body froze the mont she heard the figure’s words, the one with her sister’s face. She knew, rationally, that this presence wasn’t who it claid to be, but still, everything about it contradicted that certainty.
The sa face, the sa subtle expressions, the sa mannerisms, even the slight curve of her lips when she smiled, it was identical, a painfully perfect copy.
Emily’s lips trembled for a brief mont. Countless words she wanted to say crowded her mind, accusations, questions, pleas never spoken, but none could escape her throat. Her chest felt heavy, as if the air had beco too dense to breathe.
Before she could organize any thoughts, a heavenly voice suddenly echoed, soft and clear, breaking the silence that surrounded her. The sound ca from very close, right beside her, making Emily shudder as she felt the sudden presence that interrupted her thoughts.
“Oh my!” the voice exclaid, in an exaggeratedly surprised tone, almost theatrical. There was a brief pause, as if the speaker was observing the scene with amusent: “It’s not good for you two to fight, kids...” it continued, now with sweetness: “How about we all get along, hm?”
When Emily turned her gaze toward the voice, she found a short figure gently floating in the air. Two delicate wings, attached at the base of the spine, flapped at regular intervals, tracing graceful movents that kept her suspended, as if the air itself were cradling her.
A faint glow seed to emanate from her silhouette, accentuating harmonious, serene features. She was a being of almost unreal beauty, so captivating that she could, without any exaggeration, be described as having an angelic appearance... literally.
The reaction of the humans present was nearly unanimous: imdiate shock, followed by fear. So, on the other hand, looked so overtaken by terror that Emily could have sworn they might pass out at any mont, their faces pale and their breathing uneven.
Those who showed caution were precisely the ones familiar with the anomaly, an entity that, while harmless most of the ti, was also notoriously inconsistent and playful... almost always in a peculiar way that bordered on unsettling.
For those who had never encountered it before, however, the scene was interpreted quite differently. From their perspective, it looked as though an anomaly had simply appeared out of nowhere, with a clear intent to kill them.
“Whoa!” exclaid the figure who resembled Emily’s sister, her voice and expression marked by genuine surprise. Her eyes widened briefly before she tilted her head slightly, studying her with curiosity: “You can see ?” she went on, still incredulous. Then she paused, as if struck by a sudden realization: “Well... considering who you are, I guess that’s to be expected” she finished with a shrug and a half-smile.
Seeing the figure, so eerily similar to her sister, react with such indifference and superficiality, Emily let out a restrained sigh, heavy with impatience. She then slowly turned toward the anomaly that had appeared so abruptly, as if tearing through the very air around it.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in open suspicion. She crossed her arms, her tone sharpening with a hint of irony and firmness as she continued: “And another thing... kids? How old do you think I am? Maybe for you immortal beings, age doesn’t an a thing. But for humans who live, at most, to a hundred, I’m already considered an adult, you know” Her gaze never left the entity.
Emily watched the entity closely as it rely tilted its head slightly before breaking into a surprisingly friendly smile: “Hmm... from my point of view, all of you are still children” it said in a soft, almost amused voice: “My beautiful, adorable children” The smile was contagious, far too wide to seem human, and carried a strange mix of tenderness and superiority, as if the entity truly believed it was speaking to fragile, innocent beings.
For reasons Emily couldn’t understand, an old sensation resurfaced in her chest, the sa maternal warmth she used to feel when she was with her own mother.
It unsettled her deeply. That was why she avoided nurturing that emotional anomaly. It was... far too strange to feel sothing like that for soone who wasn’t her mother.
Still, seeing the situation as an opportunity, Emily tilted her head slightly, letting a crooked, ironic smile slip free, and mocked her in a soft yet venomous tone: “For a mother, you’re pretty indifferent to your children... watching them die one by one and doing absolutely nothing”
Emily waited for so kind of reaction. Even so, she couldn’t say she expected the one the anomaly gave her. The entity tilted its head to the side in a thoughtful gesture, then spoke with solemn calm: “Hmm... even as the origin of life, I cannot interfere with this cycle”
She then closed her eyes, falling silent for a brief mont, as if searching for a distant mory or organizing her thoughts. When she opened them again, she clapped one hand into the other in a sudden gesture that suggested she had rembered sothing important.
“Ah! That’s right... you humans kill animals to survive, feeding on them” Her voice carried no judgnt, only observation. She continued: “As the origin of all life, just as I see you as my children, I see those animals the sa way. I may be a mother, but above all, I am responsible for life itself. I cannot interfere with what happens after that life blossoms. My sole mission is to create it, not to monitor it”
Emily scoffed in response. Even if she could logically understand the reasoning behind the words, that didn’t make accepting them any easier: “Whatever. I’ve got more important things to worry about” she muttered with a shrug. With a hardened expression and a tense jaw, she turned away, determined to leave, as if ignoring the conversation were the only way to keep control of her thoughts.
However, just monts before she could walk away completely, the anomaly’s voice echoed once more, clear and resonant enough to cut through the space and freeze her in place. Emily’s body stiffened, muscles locked, as the words rang out with unsettling calm: “Are you sure?” There was a brief, almost calculated pause before the voice continued, laced with subtle irony: “I thought you humans valued family mbers above all else”
The words made Emily turn back toward the anomaly, which rely curled its lips into a sly smile, wearing a playful, amused expression.
In the next instant, Emily shifted her gaze to the other figure, a presence that reminded her... reminded her so much of her sister that she had to fight herself to think otherwise.
Noticing Emily’s fixed stare, the figure, who until then had seed distracted, gazing into nothing as if lost in thought, slowly turned toward her.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, the air thick with a strange familiarity. Then the figure smiled softly and raised her hand, giving a small wave, both friendly and provocative at once, as if testing Emily’s reaction.
User Comments
0 comments from readers