Cloudy. 4mph winds blowing south. Eighty-three degrees fahrenheit. Sunny weather is expected over the week.
"You guys excited?" asked Milo.
Grif was desperately trying to beat Milo in a fighting game on Milo's TV, Azer watching intently.
"What for?" Azer asked, turning towards Milo. Grif, focused, paid no attention.
Milo turned away from the game, surprised.
"Well, a lot of stuff, right? It's Grif's 13th birthday tomorrow, for starters. And doesn't that mean one of you is old enough to be part of Team Virga? Is that what it's called?"
"Shh!" Grif hissed.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot we can't talk about that in the open," Milo apologized.
"No! Shaddup! I'm focusing on beating you!"
Azer felt stupid for forgetting. It had been so long since Team Virga had been properly brought up, he had completely forgotten that he and Grif would be officially recruited when one of them turned 13.
Azer could attribute some of the forgetting to the traumatic events that had occurred on that day, three standard years ago. Since the attempted kidnapping of Milo and the attempted murder of all of them, it was no wonder Azer's mind would try and forget such a thing.
School, for one, was a nightmare for months following the incident. Students and classmates talked about Azer, Grif, Milo and Torbe constantly, and the attention grew tiring. Copycat's hatred grew even deeper towards Azer and Grif, now directed at Milo as well. His arrogance increased yet more, and glares from their rival became the norm. Torbe's family moved off the planet only a week after the attack, a heartbreaking occasion that Milo had found difficult to accept.
But, like all things, the commotion died down, and even some positives came out of it. Mr. Grano had employed Azer and Grif in part-time jobs at Grano's Diner. Milo had grown less afraid. While the expectation following the attack was that Milo would shy away from it, he talked about the incident freely. His face, which had been partially converted into pure carbon from Kovaki's Val, still sported the warped scars of her attack. His sense of justice had been reinforced, and he enjoyed being the top of their grade in combat class, along with Azer and Grif. Their friendship had strengthened even more after the battle, and Azer and Grif enjoyed frequent visits to his massive house, full of gadgets, games and technologies the two could never dream to afford.
"Also," Milo said, now completely unfocused on the video game and intent on Azer, his fingers still moving rapidly over the controller as Milo's character slammed Grif's into the ground. Azer broke out of his trance of thought.
"The Shades is happening soon. Just a few months away, always around this time near the end of Manim's summer. It's gonna be our first time seeing it."
"I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I wouldn't exactly say I'm excited," Azer pointed, watching the TV again as Grif's character took another beating from Milo's. Grif let out a growl of frustration.
"That's fair," Milo replied. They both knew Kovaki's motivations had been deeply shaped by The Shades. And Azer still felt a creeping dread at the idea of the storm, as if a great evil was approaching.
Finally, Milo's fighting character grabbed Grif's and threw him to the ground a final time, prompting the word "FINISH" to cover the screen in big letters. Grif threw his controller to the ground, enraged, while Milo calmly smiled.
"Want a rematch?" Milo asked.
Grif glared sidelong at Milo, picked up the controller and sat back down on the comfy couch with a frown.
"Yeah… fine. Say your prayers."
# # #
The two boys celebrated Grif's birthday the moment they arrived home from school. Grif received an engineering book that Azer had saved up for, a remote control car from Milo, and, to the boys' surprise:
"Is that… cake?"
On their front door was an excellently-crafted cake, with icing that read: Happy Birthday Grif! along with a note written in slanted handwriting.
Meet at the school as soon as you get the chance. You know the spot.
Dr. D
"Isn't it a bit weird for our principal to be taking care of us like this?" Grif said, but he was grinning ear to ear.
"It's your birthday."
"We finally get to be part of Team Virga! Do you think we'll get our questions answered?"
"We'd better!"
# # #
Azer and Grif moved into the cramped, dusty janitor's closet they had visited so long ago and shut the door behind them. It was dark and cold inside, lit only by a single fluorescent light overhead.
"Hey, let me get on your shoulders. Dr. D did something involving touching the ceiling. We need to try that too," Grif suggested.
Azer obliged and Grif climbed on his shoulders, eventually able to touch the concrete surface around the fluorescent light, running his fingers along different edges of the ceiling.
"This is what we're supposed to do, right?" Azer asked, unsure.
"Pretty sure. Ah-"
Grif suddenly gasped and poked a spot on the ceiling. Silently and unnoticed, the uncluttered wall of the closet slowly became translucent, leaking light in from the secret tunnel.
"Guess that did it."
They made their way down the tunnel, turning left and right, sinking deeper as they walked. Finally, they heard muffled talking and found the door they had entered three years earlier, pushing it open.
The members of Team Virga were gathered around a table, documents and papers strewn about. When they heard the creak of the door, they quickly came over to greet Azer and Grif. Copycat's dad, Okta, stayed behind, looking at them expressionlessly.
"Welcome! We're so glad to have you here!" Dr. D said, striding up to them in his black cloak, hood down. Delvin, only steps behind, bent down to congratulate the two boys. He reached out a hand towards Azer and Grif in turn, vigorously shaking Azer's hand with both of his own.
"I cannot express how much joy it brings me to see you two here with us," he said, an excitement visible in his silver eyes. "I hope you can help us with our search."
Mrs. Korca, only moments later, opted to give each of the boys a great and choking hug.
"I'm so proud as your teacher to see you coming this far," she said, her magnified eyes tearing up a bit as she looked at them.
Dr. D swept Azer and Grif away from the tearful Mrs. Korca and over to a large table. The tabletop reached all the way up to the chins of Azer and Grif, who were only still half the height of the other team members.
"First thing's first, happy birthday Grif! It is our pleasure for you two to join us. We would have recruited you on our first meeting, but after you found us, we decided that anything much younger than 13 was too young. I warn you now, working with us will not be easy, and oftentimes it won't be fun or pleasant, either. Curiosity and discovery alone drive us. Do you still want to be part of the group?"
Azer and Grif turned to each other as if considering, but both knew the answer already. They nodded.
"Good. To start us off, I will review the theory that our discoveries revolve around, and this theory stems off of a collection of—the word is hard to find—dreams I have had. Distant, long-lost memories from another time and another life. Again, I warn you—this isn't for the faint of heart. May I continue?"
The boys nodded again.
"I have had these dreams since I can first remember, but I have not made sense of them up until quite recently when I founded Team Virga. I dreamt of a man, a sick man, very sick indeed, tall with the brightest blue eyes imaginable. This man was a scientist, not unlike us."
"The science he pursued was trying to find a cure to a deadly virus—a pursuit he and his colleagues had been working on for a long time. It was of impossible lethality and deadliness, and countless lives had already been taken. The fate of the world rested in the hands of this man and his team."
"But I have already said before that this man was sick. He was sick with the very virus he seeked to destroy, and his days were now numbered. The man feared death. He feared meeting the fate he had seen in others thousands of times before. He had watched patients' eyes go blank and their minds go dim, and above all else he feared having the same happen to himself."
"By some miracle, he and his team of scientists had created a cure. A single, miniscule vial that could stop the virus in its tracks. It only had to be produced in mass."
"And when the man internalized his fate, a desperate and powerful fear of death overtook him. Moments before his demise and just the day before the vial was to be widely produced, the man broke the glass casing holding the cure. As death was overtaking him, he gripped the vial tightly and consumed the whole thing."
An unreadable expression came across Dr. D's face. He stopped talking.
"And?" Grif urged, his mouth dry and his eyes wide and terrified. "What happened?"
After a moment of silence, Dr. D spoke again.
"The dream ends there. Everything else I will tell you after that is speculation into the dream's meaning."
"There is no way to put it lightly—I believe it's not a dream at all. That man existed, and his selfish attempt to save his life did, in fact, result in the death of the rest of his kind," he paused. "And that man was me."
The shock Azer and Grif felt was palpable in the room. It was apparent that the other members of Team Virga had heard this story before, but it did not stop their faces from going pale.
"So… you survived?" Azer asked.
"I didn't. That man died the instant he took the vial, curing him of the virus as the virus killed him. The theory is that something inside the cure, some chemical or substance that is unknown to me, gave me life the second that I died. A bizarre fluke of science and nature took my body as it passed over the threshold of life and death and suspended me in the middle. I was alive when I died, I passed away while I lived. A grim state of superposition combined my passing soul and my living, breathing self, turning me into a new being, a new person. During that moment, my eyes turned white, like those of a corpse. My living death gave me a second chance, a rebirth of sorts. And when I could think again, I had the power of Death itself at my fingertips. I still do today."
"Any memories that hadn't closely preceded my death are entirely forgotten, save for a few random memories I might recall every so often. Aside from that, I may as well be a different person. But, even then, I still have a feeling of certainty regarding the weight of this virus, and, this may surprise you," he paused. "I feel a kind of deja vu when I'm around the two of you. I think, somehow, you are instrumental in this search. Something in my past life is telling me."
"Wait," Azer said, hardly able to wrap his head around the information being thrown at him. "I thought you said the virus killed your kind? Wouldn't it have died out after that? Isn't the virus gone now?"
"That's where the theory really starts," Dr. D answered. "I think, somehow, my planet wasn't the only planet to be attacked by this virus. We believe the virus is interplanetary, hopping from planet to planet. Evidence that Team Virga has been gathering over the years gives merit to the idea that other planets have fallen victim to the same infection that killed me."
"How many?" asked Grif.
"We don't know. Part of Team Virga's purpose is to find out."
"But what does this have to do with The Shades? Didn't you say a long time ago that this theory had to do with The Shades?"
"I did, but any evidence I once had to connect The Shades with this virus is currently unknown to me. Part of why we're trying to discover all of this is to unravel that mystery, as well. All I know is, somehow, they're related. We just have yet to find out how."
Azer backed up and sat down on a large seat, his hands on his head. Grif just stood there, mouthing silently, bewilderment on his face. The knowledge was overwhelming. They could now see why Dr. D had decided to wait so long to tell them.
"Are you two alright? I know that was a lot at once," he said, walking over to them.
"You can say that again," Grif said, shaking his head and rubbing his face. "Is there really that little evidence about this theory? So much of it seems to be make-believe!"
"Ah, but that's the nature of a theory. In reality, I could be completely wrong about everything. But that's why we're here, isn't it? Our purpose isn't to prove me right; it's to discover what is true and build off of that. Whether I'm right or wrong, we're here to get questions answered. And so, that brings me to the first mission I have for you."
The two boys looked up.
"Your first mission is to discover your pasts. I've told you all that we know thus far, and I firmly believe the histories you two and your species have will help us piece things together. I don't think it's a coincidence you both ended up on this planet without any information about yourselves or where you came from. Use any resources and means you have to find out. I'd help if I could, but your pasts belong to you, not me. Find them."
A moment of tense silence between everyone, and then Dr. D looked at his watch.
"But before that, I do believe it's your birthday today, Grif. The day is young and so are you, so spend the rest of your birthday having fun. Today's meeting is done, so you're free to go."
Reluctantly at first, Azer and Grif got up to leave the room. After tapping the solid-seeming wall they entered through, it grew more transparent until they walked straight through, turning opaque behind them.
# # #
A knock at the door. Azer and Grif happily rushed to it and swung it wide open, revealing the grinning face of Milo, who was holding a sack of pillows and sleeping bags that was larger than any of them. Grif closed the door behind him as Milo's mom drove away, and he plopped his numerous belongings on Azer and Grif's couch.
"Is anyone else coming?" Milo asked.
"Yep," Grif answered, getting a glass of water. "Saa's coming too."
"Cool. I brought my games and controllers. You want to try a round of Battle Heroes?"
Grif sighed and frowned. "Fine. You owe me if I win!"
Milo laughed and sat down, plugging his controller into Azer and Grif's TV.
"If."
# # #
Azer, Grif, Milo, and Saa all lay comfortably on or dangling off their sleeping bags, pillows, couches, and cushions on Azer and Grif's living room floor. The TV, in view of all of them, was quietly playing cartoons with spirited characters and bright colors, and Azer and Milo watched in silence.
The windows were dark, as the sun had fallen away over half an hour ago. Saa stared out of the nearest window, at nothing in particular, and asked:
"You guys like scary stories?"
Everyone turned her way. A pause.
"Well? Do you?" she repeated.
"I've never been the biggest fan…" Milo said quietly.
"Are you kidding? Of course!" Grif said.
"I guess…" Azer said.
"People who like scary stories want to hear them, and people who don't like scary stories need to hear them. So I'll tell you guys one," Saa said, sitting up straight and clearing her throat.
"Have you ever heard of the Manim deadzone?"
A chorus of "yeah" and "uh-huh" in response. She spoke again, her heterochromic eyes darkening.
"It's about Manim being the only planet in this corner of the galaxy with life, right?" Grif asked.
"Yeah. My brother told me a story about the deadzone planets, it's a true story. So, a bunch of rogue scientists, just having gotten kicked out of their jobs, decided to explore one of the forbidden deadzone planets. Just for fun. They had nothing to lose."
Milo unconsciously scooted closer to Azer.
"They ignored all of Zysti's rules about not going to the deadzone planets and decided to land on one called Nimon, a few lightyears from here. They had a group in orbit to take care of the ship and a group on the ground, and after a few days they would swap roles and the other team would get to explore. So they sent the first group down, letting them explore and stuff, and every few days they would swap out, right?"
"The first group explored Nimon for a while, mapping out the area, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until, one day, the surface group contacted the orbiting group and told them there was a strange red light glowing from cracks in the ground."
"A few days passed without a word from the surface group, so everyone in orbit tried contacting them. Nothing. Getting worried, the orbiting team decided to go down and investigate…"
Saa paused for dramatic effect, and then looked at the boys again with a malicious grin.
"None of them were ever heard from again. Disappeared… as if they were never there. Only their ship's log was left behind. Legend has it that a monster was roaming the planet, waiting for unsuspecting travelers to show up."
Azer and Milo were shaking and hugging each other, Milo's eyes wide. Grif, on the other hand, sat separate from them, unfazed and unamused.
"Nice story. Who made it up?" Grif said.
"No, it's true!" Saa said dramatically. "My brother knows this kind of stuff! It's really a true story!"
"Then why haven't I heard it before? Or, why did your brother hear it and not you? Or, why didn't we hear about this in history class? Or science class? It's so obviously a made-up story, anyone with a brain can tell."
Saa looked disbelieving and frowned, while Milo and Azer let each other go.
"You mean it's not real?" Azer said, relieved.
"Obviously not. It's a good story, though. I'll give your brother some credit," Grif replied, lying back down.
"I don't know… It sounded pretty real to me," Saa said, still uncertain. "Maybe I just didn't tell it right."
Grif was adamant. "There just simply can't be a creature like that. How would the Zystinian government not catch it? There's no life at all on the deadzone planets."
"Hey, nobody knows everything. The creature easily could have been hiding. Even those Team Virga guys might not have heard of it."
Now Grif looked somewhat uncertain, frowning doubtedly. He stayed silent.
"Can I tell a scary story?"
Everyone looked towards the source of the voice. It was Milo, looking disconcerted.
"Of course. I thought you didn't like scary stories?" Saa said.
"Well… no, I don't… I just heard this one from Copycat a long time ago when he was trying to scare me. Thought I'd share it."
"Please," Grif urged.
"Well… I think it goes something like this… so, you know how there's a shrine just outside of town? Like, that really old one people talk about sometimes? Well, the story goes that there's an evil spirit that haunts the shrine and never lets people near it at night. It's called Nur's Ghoul. Apparently, anyone who goes near it gets t- taken by the ghoul, and nobody sees them again. Copycat told me he'd feed me to Nur's ghoul if he found out I told anyone that I caught him stealing Torbe's lunch money."
But by the time Milo finished, the rest of the group was already looking at him, scared and amazed.
"Wow… that was really good," Azer complimented.
"Yeah, that was amazing," Grif agreed.
Saa didn't say anything, but was instead staring off into space wistfully.
"That shrine's not far from my house," she said quietly.
Milo looked at her, afraid.
"You're not suggesting-"
"We NEED to go there!" she erupted all of a sudden, startling the others. "We've TOTALLY got to check it out!"
"But I thought you said horror stories were real?" Azer said over Grif's cheers of agreement.
"Not all of them! And besides, even if Nur's Ghoul is real, I've totally got to check it out! Actually, I think I've heard of it before! C'mon, let's go!"
"All in favor of sneaking out to see Nur's Ghoul!" Grif said, raising his hand up high. An instant later and Saa's was up, too. They looked expectantly at Azer and Milo. A moment of silence.
"Really? You don't want to?" Saa asked, disappointed.
"Doesn't matter! It's my birthday, so my vote counts for two! Let's go!" Grif exclaimed, promptly standing up and ushering everyone out of the door. Milo gave one last pleading look to Azer, who shrugged.
# # #
Trekking between trees and under street lamps, joking, laughing, and shouting, the four walked together. They went through Azer and Grif's neighborhood, over a bridge and a dirt path, between brambles, thorns, and branches. They walked to the outskirts of town, their feet aching and the joking replaced with an anxious sense of wonder. After an hour or more of walking, they reached a cleaner path that transitioned into a path of brownish-gray brickwork. It wound and twisted, eventually opening into a larger area, the same brickwork covering the ground all around.
There was the shrine, unexpectedly tall, a massive wall of aged gray stone. It was full of designs and symbols, draped with long strings of beads, flowers, and other signs of worship and respect. Despite much of it having crumbled away, and its appearance old and ruined, it still held a symmetric beauty, as if it was once part of a larger whole.
"It's so pretty," Saa commented, awed.
"No kidding," Grif agreed.
"What's the shrine for?" Azer asked, turning to Saa. "Aren't they usually for religious ceremonies?"
"I heard it was built not long after Nur was colonized as a form of respect to not just one god or religion, but all of the religions of everyone from every planet who lived in Nur. It's really something."
"That's amazing," Milo agreed.
Azer, however, felt differently from the rest. He wasn't feeling awe like the others. Instead, he felt an unplaceable nostalgia, a strange and otherworldly feeling of familiarity for somewhere he's obviously never been—and, after hearing what Saa said, a feeling of doubt.
"Are you sure it's only that old?" Azer pointed, walking up to the shrine and running his fingers over the symbols on the wall. Upon making contact with the wall, he was struck with a bizarre, electric feeling of… something. The familiar feeling had spiked for a fraction of a second and left his heart racing. "It looks a lot older than that."
Azer removed his fingers from the wall and looked at them. They were caked with black dust.
Saa said, "No, I'm pretty sure that's when it was built. It probably looks so old because it hasn't been cleaned for years. But you're right, it is strange… even though it was built by us, nobody knows what the symbols mean."
This made Azer laugh a bit.
"What are you talking about? They're perfectly readable. It's not that dirty and old."
There was silence from the others for a moment, and then Azer turned around. They were all smiling at him as if he just said a funny joke.
"What's up? I wasn't being sarcastic."
Their faces slowly transitioned from amusement to doubtful confusion and concern. They were all staring at him.
"But you said you could read them. Is that not what you said?" Saa asked, no longer smiling.
"Because I can." He came to a moment of realization. "Wait, can't you guys read it?"
"No," Saa answered emphatically. "Nobody can. Nobody's ever been able to."
"You're joking! You can't read this?! Here-" he pointed up to the start of a line of symbols- '"We inscribe this first relic to preserve the knowledge of the Hivanian people and the properties of the world they currently inhabit.' Can you guys not read that?! It says those exact words! Clearly!"
But they just continued to stare at him, shocked.
"'This historical relic enshrines the known qualities of and is to remain here as a guide in the case of a powerful force called the Magna virus, which the Hivanian people believe is imminent…'"
But then, Azer trailed off, thinking. An incredible realization had hit him. The Magna virus? This virus… there was a deadly virus being described on this shrine. No—it wasn't a shrine at all. It was something different. The symbols described it as a relic… but was it really that? Was this wall actually a part of a bigger, complete record of this species and this virus? Would this truly be the answer to their search? Azer turned towards the others, but they were no longer looking at him. Instead, they were staring fixed and mortified at a spot behind him, faces turning pale white.
Raspy breathing came from behind Azer.
A terribly ragged, pale… something… was standing behind Azer, far taller than he. The creature's skin was stretched tight over his bones and appeared almost translucent with sickening whiteness.
A growl came from the ghoul's throat.
"Don't move!" the creature rasped.
Azer stood petrified from fear. It wasn't that he wanted to obey—he was simply paralyzed with terror. Milo's lip quivered, and then-
"GHOUL!"
They all screamed as they ran for their lives, the petrifying spell that had lingered over Azer broken in an instant as he sprinted away. The ghoul yelled as he chased after them.
While stomping over the brickwork surface and crashing into tree branches, Azer could hear the ghoul behind him, shouting words he could barely make out.
"COME BACK HERE!" he said, his deep and gravelly voice damaged. "I'M GOING… YOU!"
The stone-laden ground was now thinning out into the dirt path again, peppered with the shoe prints of the four as they sprinted away.
"THE RELIC!" the ghoul cried, his voice faint now.
Azer slowed, eventually coming to a stop and turning back towards the voice. He no longer heard the ghoul chasing them; the only footsteps were Grif, Saa, and Milo slowing down as well and approaching him, panting.
"Why… did you stop…?" Grif wheezed.
"I think we already lost him," Saa said.
"No," Azer said finally. "I heard him say something about the relic."
"And that wasn't a ghoul at all!" Saa exclaimed. "That was just a super skinny old man!"
"He certainly looked like a ghoul," Milo said, shivering.
"Wait! Guys!" Azer yelled. "Did nobody else hear what he said?"
"I could hardly make it out. I thought he was just threatening to eat us," Saa answered.
"He mentioned the relic!" Azer yelled again. "That isn't a shrine at all, it's an incredibly old monument! Way older than the earliest colonists! And the relic mentioned the virus Dr. D has been looking for!"
A moment of silence. Grif spoke up.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! Someone's trying to cover it up by telling everyone it's a shrine! I could read it clearly! Maybe we should go back…"
"No!" everyone else yelled in unison.
"Okay, fine! But, please at least let's come back here tomorrow. I'm sure… I'm sure there's something there."
# # #
Azer and Grif went to the shrine first thing next morning. They traversed through neighborhoods, crossing busy streets and eventually passing into a far more wooded and lush path. While expecting to hear rustling leaves on their way, they were instead greeted by faint beeping and the whir of engines, which grew louder and louder until colored tape blocked their paths. A sign read:
CAUTION: CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS
Large bulldozers and excavators were tearing at the ground where the shrine had stood, while workers donning reflective vests pointed, shouted, and commanded. Azer and Grif stood, stark still, at the sight. Neither of them spoke a word over the noise. A worker approached them, exhausted and sweaty. He wiped his eyebrow and then spoke:
"What're you kids doing here?"
"Where's the shrine?" Azer asked, ignoring his question.
"We tore it down. The mayor wants to build a parking lot; it's been scheduled for a while now."
Another moment of silence. Azer returned to the spectacle.
"Excuse me…" Grif spoke up, looking haunted. "What happened… was there a man here? By the… shrine?"
The worker didn't speak, but instead pointed to the far side of the clearing, behind an idle piece of construction equipment. It was an ambulance, lights flashing.
"Heart failure, he's already dead," the worker said. "Must have spooked the poor man."