I slam my car door shut as I walk through the old parking garage, my shoes crunching glass from car doors. On the side of the building is a big, jagged hole about the size of a car. You'd have to live under a rock not to know the story of how it got there. An Abomination that had the ability to kill himself over and over again took a car up here and crashed the car out the side of the building, crashing into the wall below. A few Abominations escaped but were captured and executed. As for the man who took down the wall, he was also executed because he could kill himself and live, but the agents killed him instead.
I walk along with the old, broken-down cars left in the parking garage quietly as I move to meet my contact within the Conglomeration. My link on the inside said she had information about my employer and why he suddenly disappeared. I know my contact is trustworthy, especially since she's the one who updates my family monthly on my situation. The parking garage has an eerie aura about itself, the feeling makes my skin crawl as I continue my way to the front of the parking lot. The humid air lingers ominously as I approach my contact's car cautiously. Alessandra steps out of her car with a manilla folder in her hands, a good sign.
"Hello, Alessandra. What were you able to find out about Allura's parents?" I ask in a rush, My tone condescending. Alessandra rolls her bright green eyes as a gust of wind blows her medium blonde hair. She sets the manilla folder on the hood of her car and pops her hip out as she faces me, a serious look on her face. My body tenses as I feel the faint buzz of energy buried deep in my body. Any playfulness that my tone contained vanished instantly as my authority inserts itself into my tone.
"Forest, there's something big going on." She says as she opens the manilla folder. Inside the folder, I see pictures of multiple different abominations and descriptions of their abilities and limits. "There are dozens of these sheets with information about certain Abominations' abilities and their test results. Everything about them. Even their most visited locations within the city. All these Abominations have two things in common, their abilities are able to inflict pain or death and they all have a record of violence in their past. I found your information chart too, I thought I would find yours since you have...a sporadic ability." She pauses and looks down at her feet. She picks at her fingers nervously. "I also found another abomination..like you." She whispers, her voice barely audible. Confusion breaks out through my body, Alessandra notes my confusion. Another Abomination with a sporadic ability? Usually, it's one every few decades. There must be some kind of mistake, it's impossible to have two Abominations with sporadic abilities in such close quarters. "It's true. She has a record and a sporadic ability." Alessandra says, answering my silent question. She looks through the papers and pulls one out after a few moments. "Here." She says, carefully handing me the paper.
I take the paper from her, eager to read about another sporadical within the Abomination population. Her name and picture have been redacted along with her address within Haven. She's seventeen with a handful of other abilities. Her description unreadable to the big red stamp across the page reading: "SPORADICAL." All I can make out is the fact that she has large scars that riddle her body. I move to her criminal record, to gain any information that might help me pick her out of a crowd. Her criminal has one word highlighted in bright yellow. Murder.
I pull up to my apartment as the horizon illuminates an orange glow to radiate through Haven. I look back at the folder that sits in the passenger seat of my truck, a shiver ripping its way throughout my body. I shut off the engine as I grab the folder and tuck it into my jacket to hide from any prying eyes. I open the car door as a strong gust of wind flows through the trees surrounding me. The trees shake violently in the wind, the leaves determined to break off from their food source. Clouds start rolling in my direction quickly as the sun vanishes. Thunder rumbles deep within my chest as the buzzing in my head teases me. My shaky hands pull my jacket tighter around my body and the folder when I walk briskly to my front door as lightning strikes dangerously close to the wreckage in the south. The keys fumble as I jam them into the lock. I feel my body resisting to retreat within the safety of the apartment, it begs my mind to hold the power of a storm in my hands.
I bust into the room and slam the door hard behind me, suffocating in my own skin as I feel the buzz wretched away from me. I breathe heavily as I drop onto a chair, the room spinning unnaturally. I take slow deep breathes to slow my heart rate before I lose control. I rub my eyes, my fingertips tingle from the loss of confidence and possibilities. A rustling sound distracts me. The folder has slipped out of my jacket and all the pages have sprawled out across the hardwood floor. I notice something on the Spordical Abomination's page that I didn't notice earlier. This woman was involved with a very dangerous group. I know this because there's one very important detail that wasn't redacted in the bottom corner of the page. A stamp. A brand that would be recognizable on a body. A tribal emblem of the grim reaper is sketched next to a barcode at the bottom of the page.
This emblem is the marking from the biggest, most dangerous, underground fight club used by the government. The government makes a profit off Abominations fighting to kill each other along with supporters who just want the fights to continue. I ran into the DeathRaiders a while back when I was scrambling to find Zak a job, and I was considered extremely suspicious while I was snooping around. The DeathRaiders sent out fighters after me, and after a long, brutal brawl, all the fighters were dead. And there I was, sitting in an interrogation room outside of Haven after I defended myself from the fighters. It went on my record as the rumors of my body count tripling rippled throughout Haven quickly. The agents beat me for over three hours until they were satisfied, then they drugged me and threw back into Haven. I feel the anger burrowing its way through my thoughts, tempting me to get revenge. I push against the willpower of my anger as I gather the papers back into the folder neatly.
My thoughts are interrupted by a foreign voice in my head. I sigh as I recognize the voice. "Anna. What's the problem? It better be important for you to annoy me." I communicate back to Anna, Zak's little sister. I hide the folder under my coach before unlocking the door for Anna to come in. I head to the kitchen to grab her a towel. She must be drenched by the torrential downpour outside.
"Here you go." I throw a towel into the living room without looking, distracted by my open window in the kitchen. I hear the rustling fabric so I assume that Anna took the towel. "What's up?" I ask as I shut the window. I check my watch for the time as I walk back into the living room.
"Ah. Nothing, I just came over here to see my favorite person." Anna replies, her tone grim. I look up at her. Her black hair is stringy and soaked from the storm outside. Her black raincoat is dripping water all over the floor as she wrings out her socks and hair in a bucket by the door. Her brown eyes glare at me as she takes off her raincoat and hangs it on the front door. She takes the towel and throws it at me aggressively. "Do you live under a rock?" She growls angrily. "Have you been to the main square at all today?" She asks as she makes herself comfortable on my couch.
"No...What's happening? Has a drag race gone bad or did the Conglomeration come up with another speech that criticizes Abominations as a whole? " I sit down next to Anna as I list multiple possibilities.
"Reelection is a president's worst nightmare. President Watson's running for her third term and she started out unopposed, but a local councilman has risen to the challenge. And this local councilman has a passionate hate for our people. He says if he's elected, he'll truly make sure Abominations know their place and after two mistakes..." She trails off, leaving it to my imagination.'You're kidding. It's a trap. He's literally provoking us because he knows the reapers broadcast the speeches throughout the city." She nods in agreement. "My god. Everyone will vote for this guy. There was a shooting last week in the capital over Abomination cruelty, they even tried to get our label changed to something with a less negative connotation." I drop my head into my hands, running my fingers through my hair.
"Uh-huh. They're stirring up riots in the capital from the measly percent of the human population that actually cares about us. School's bad enough without the government throwing in new rules every other day." I lift my head from my hands after she replies to my statement.
"What's been going on at school? You've been there for a few months now, so you should have some upperclassmen friends by now." I ask, crossing my arms over my chest as I remember my years at Hilltop High. Anna looks down at her hands and starts picking at her fingers nervously.
"It's a mixture of things, really. It's boring and useless. My class is supposed to be meeting a junior who's going to teach us about the history and all the useless boring stuff that we have to look out for in the future. And there are the usual mean girls torturing me about my dead parents. It's just horrible there if you know what I mean. What's the whole point of learning when we're never going to make it out of this hellhole?" She exclaims, moving her hands around erratically.
"You never know, Anna. Just survive through the next four years. High school gets better." I repeat the same line I constantly repeat to her every week. She sighs and throws her head back against the wall aggressively. I roll my eyes and set my head back against the wall gently, closing my eyes and inhaling the petrichor scent wafting through the front door.