REND

Vanessa Minnows

Vanessa Minnows was the last to go through the door on the floor. She wavered momentarily, thinking of asking Euphonia how to pay for helping them. But Euphonia was busy directing her monstrous creations; more emerged from the flames and dug out of the ground. Vanessa promptly jumped into the portal, anxious it’d close. She didn’t want to get stuck with Euphonia and her pets.

She went down through the open door and shot out sideways, gravity abruptly changing directions. She fell on her left side, disoriented, landing on a polished concrete floor.

A shadow fell over her.

It was Deen, an unsmiling face offering a hand.

Vanessa cautiously accepted it and mumbled, “Thanks.”

The three found themselves in the back area of a locker room with yellowing tube lights on the ceiling. Vanessa wrinkled her nose from the musty dustiness. She recognized her surroundings; her eye familiars had been here before. The ringing bell stopped, and the door they came through swung shut. It was an off-white PVC door with patches of old stains along its bottom.

Erind grabbed its door knob.

“What are you doing?” Deen asked, pulling the tarp sheet draped on Erind’s shoulder.

“Just checking.” Erind turned the handle. “Why? Is there danger?”

Deen shook her head.

Vanessa blinked at their exchange. Why did Erind ask Deen that? A possible clue to Deen’s power?

Despite spying on them for some time, Vanessa had no idea what it was. It must be something not apparent, like seeing through doors and walls. A downside of the eye familiars was that they could share with Vanessa only what they saw. They didn’t have ears and couldn’t eavesdrop on Erind and Deen discussing the latter’s powers.

Erind pulled the door open. It was a janitor’s closet. Inside were a yellow mop bucket, brushes, and empty containers with peeling labels of cleaning products.

“We really got out,” Erind said. She popped the door off its hinges with one firm yank and threw it aside. “There. So that weird lady can’t follow us if she changes her mind about letting us go.”

“Oh! Where’s your mom?” Deen exclaimed. “And those that escaped with her?” She rushed to check the other side of the locker shelves. Rounding the row of rusty metal on Vanessa’s left, Deen came out of the far end, near the room’s exit door. “No one else is here! Are we in the right place?”

“Maybe we’re in China,” Erind dryly said.

“This is where your mother got teleported,” Vanessa said. If Legba didn’t mess up, she added in her head. “The other people, too… supposedly.”

Erind stared at her. Vanessa gave a subtle head tilt in answer. She didn’t know why she pretended to have saved others besides Erind’s mom. Who was that story for? Erind knew she was lying. Was she unconsciously trying to make a good impression on Deen? Maybe she had wanted to be seen as trustworthy, but now there was a slight problem to fix with her story.

“That was a while back,” Vanessa continued. “She—I mean, they—must’ve left to explore the building.”

“Let’s find them!” Deen jogged out the door.

“Deen, wait for us!” Erind called. She pulled Vanessa to the exit, whispering, “A small reminder that Deen shouldn’t know I’m also Pino.”

“Already got that,” Vanessa replied, wondering why Erind kept Deen in the dark. They seemed like close friends, even living together. It turned out they were not as close as Vanessa had assumed. Was Erind hiding some of her powers in case she’d fight Deen?

It wouldn’t be surprising if Erind betrayed another ally.

Must be the Adumbrae inside her. Erind did it to Vanessa and her friends. She decapitated that guy fighting with them earlier; Vanessa guessed he was one of those government test subjects helping Erind.

Deen could be next on the chopping board if she was no longer useful or turned into a threat. Or what about her own mother? Deen appeared to care more about finding Erind’s mom than Erind herself. Was Erind preparing to dispose of her mother too?

It could also be me, Vanessa mused. Again.Though, knowing stuff about Erind that Deen didn’t was some comfort. She had time to build up their relationship.

After… eating… Rob with her mouth familiars and reviving her body—she was a charred corpse at that point—it dawned on Vanessa that she truly was a monster. Then she corrected herself, I already knew that long ago.

She became a monster after undergoing the procedures at Red Island. She was a monster for ingesting chemicals made from human brains. She was also a monster for doing nothing while innocent people got killed for sport in front of her. But everything sunk in only after meeting—and surviving—Erind.

In her second life, Vanessa accepted that she didn’t have a place with humans anymore. She should be with her own kind. With other monsters. With Erind.

Eyes piercing the darkness, Vanessa led the way, Erind’s hand on her shoulder.

“Aunt Lendy!” Deen called, her voice echoing in the eerie quiet of the dilapidated building. “Aunt Lendy, where are you?”

Deen didn’t get far because the lights outside the locker room were busted. Vanessa spotted her in the next hallway, hands stretched out, trying to feel what was in front of her. It was evident that Deen couldn’t see in the dark, but she uncannily avoided piles of trash littering the floor.

Another hint of her power? Was it echolocation?

“Deen, quiet down,” Erind hissed when they caught up to her. “There might be enemies around. Vanessa, what’s this place again?”

“A run-down building about a five-minute drive from the Greaves convention center,” Vanessa explained. “The Tea Party bought it as a storage and parking space near their target because large pieces of equipment couldn’t fit through Legba’s teleporting doors. Most of the Tea Party’s forces gathered here before going to the Tech Fair with their trucks. But I don’t think there’s anyone left here now.”

Deen said, “So, it should be fine to call out for—”

“Don’t,” Erind interjected. “Mom shouldn’t know that we know she’s here. Our story will be that we stumbled through portal doors while running away from monsters and miraculously ended up in the same place as her. We don’t know anything else. Got it?”

“What about—?”

“Oh, and we found Vanessa along the way,” Erind said, predicting Deen’s next question. “Vanessa’s an innocent girl that also got swept up in the Tea Party attack. We helped each other survive or something like that.”

“You don’t need to introduce me to your mom,” blurted Vanessa. “I’m not even supposed to be here.”

“No!” Erind firmly said, squeezing Vanessa’s shoulder. “You’re our friend, and I’ll introduce you to Mom as such. We’ll tell her you snuck out of La Esperanza to party in Vegas or something and got caught in this mess.”

“Eh? It might be less complicated if we don’t—”

“No, no. Here’s the plan. We’ll tell her who you are, niece of the former mayor and all that, so you don’t want your name plastered on the newspapers as related to an Adumbrae incident. Mom will keep quiet, I’m sure of it. I want the two of you to meet. You did save her, after all, though let’s keep that part a secret.”

“Vanessa’s right, Erind,” Deen evenly said. “She can go away once we find your mom.” Deen didn’t know Vanessa could see her frowning face as if the lights were on.

It was immature, but Vanessa couldn’t help herself getting ticked off. Changing her mind, Vanessa said, “I think it’ll be fine if we go with Erind’s plan.”

“Yeah, we’ll all meet Mom,” Erind cheerily said. “Plus, we can use Vanessa as an excuse not to go to the police. Mom will insist on going to the authorities, but we can delay that—say that we’ll help Vanessa hide first or whatever—until we can contact Myra for help.” To Vanessa, Erind explained, “Myra’s our friend from La Esperanza who knows I’m an Adumbrae.”

Deen curtly said. “You shouldn’t say you’re you-know-what out loud, Erind. You don’t know who might be listening here in the dark.”

“Oops, you’re right,” said Erind.

“So, how will we find your mom if we can’t call for her?” Though she was talking to Erind, Deen had a death glare as she faced Vanessa’s direction.

“Just shout generic stuff,” Erind said. Then she yelled, “Hello! Anyone here?”

“Fine, let’s do that,” Deen relented with a sigh. “I was thinking of splitting up to cover more ground, but it’s super dark, and we don’t have any light.”

“Where’s your phone?” Erind asked.

Deen dug into her pockets. “I-I don’t know. I must’ve dropped it while fighting.”

“Story of my life,” Erind muttered. “It didn’t have much battery left anyway, right? Let’s just continue walking in the dark.” Erind tapped Vanessa’s left arm.

“Let me handle looking for your mother,” Vanessa said, taking the cue. She prayed Deen would forget about the imaginary other saved captives. “My eye familiars can see in the dark just fine.” Vanessa omitted that she could as well, with her own eyes. “Don’t move while they come out, or you might step on them.”

There were several popping sounds, like a stuck plunger getting pulled, as the eye familiars left their sockets. Erind took a few steps back as Vanessa leaned down, extending her left arm so the eye familiars could gently drop to the ground. Scratching followed as they crawled in different directions.

Erind had a mildly amused look, while Deen had contemptuous disgust on her face.

Vanessa rolled her yes. Was Deen grossed out by the eye familiars, or hate her in general? If the latter, Vanessa couldn’t figure out why. One would think they’d be on good terms since they were both non-humans and were mutual friends of Erind. It couldn’t be that Vanessa was an Adumbrae because Erind was one too.

I have to prove I’m trustworthy, Vanessa thought as she held Erind’s arm.

Erind jolted but didn’t pull back.

“You two stick with me,” Vanessa said, “while my eye familiars search the building.” She rapidly blinked, slipping into the vision of a different familiar each time she opened her eyes. “Deen, do you want to hold—”

“No,” Deen replied shortly. “I’ll follow behind you two. Just tell me if I have to watch out for something.”

Vanessa chewed her tongue. It was best not to be pushy with Deen for now. Vanessa switched back to Erind, “We’ll find your mother in no time.”

“I hope Mom stayed inside the building,” Erind said. “But knowing Mom, she’d try to look for me everywhere.”

“Let’s hurry up and get out of this place,” Deen said from behind. “Then we can split up. Vanessa can stay here and continue to search the building.”

Why do you dislike me so much? Vanessa thought at Deen, gritting her teeth. Then she relaxed, conscious that Erind could feel her tensing up and heard her teeth.

“What will you do after this, Vanessa?” Erind asked in an attempt to change the topic. “I don’t know what you were doing with the Tea Party, but I bet you weren’t supposed to fight them.”

Deen quipped, “She was helping them with those slugs turning people—"

“The Tea Party is pretty much done for,” Erind loudly continued, talking over Deen. “Like, what will you tell your, uh, boss? Do you call the 2Ms boss?”

“I didn’t know about those slugs,” Vanessa snapped over her shoulder, mustering an affronted tone so her lie wouldn’t be blatant. “I’m just one of the clients of Mark and Big Marcy, so I don’t call them ‘boss.’ They asked for those willing to help the Tea Party in this joint project because they lacked people. I joined to… to know more about what’s going on.”

“Just curiosity?” Deen asked, her voice rising at the end, indicating absolute disbelief.

“And also to make friends,” Vanessa hesitantly shot back, as if partly ashamed. “I mean, to get acquainted with others like me.”

Another lie. Vanessa was, in fact, spying for Big Marcy on what the Tea Party was up to. But her story made her sound more sympathetic. Let Deen interpret that as she liked. Erind, too.

Vanessa had already told a few lies; what wrong was more? Really though, it wasn’t a complete lie. I want to be with others like me.

“What will I do when I return to La Esperanza?” Vanessa continued. “I don’t know… I don’t know. I have to make up a story for Mark and Big Marcy, but I don’t want to think about it now.” Big Marcy would have her back—Vanessa was sure of it. He’d be delighted that she managed to get Finlay killed. Let him handle Mark and the others who’d be suspicious.

“Do you have to return?” Erind said, gazing up at Vanessa even though she couldn’t see. “What if you hide? Run somewhere super far away? You can save money and—”

“Won’t work,” Vanessa cut in. She had thought of that many times the nights after she became an Adumbrae, and her body turned healthy. Not human, but no longer dying. “I have to return to them.”

“Are you afraid of what they’ll do if you leave?”

“We can help protect you,” Deen said with a much gentler voice.

“Wha-? It’s no-not that,” Vanessa stammered in surprise at Deen’s offer. “Yes, they’ll hunt me down if I run away. But that’s the least of my worries. If I don’t regularly return to Red Island to have what I call ‘maintenance,’ I’d lose myself to the Adumbrae in me.”

“Is that the same thing Euphonia told Erind?” Deen excitedly asked. “She mentioned that she could control her Adumbrae.”

“No, it isn’t,” said Vanessa. “Euphonia is a true Adumbrae like Erind. She can control herself without the treatment for the clients of Mark. That shouldn’t be possible… she’s a special case from the rumors I’ve heard, but I don’t know anything beyond that.”

“But can those treatments, the ones for artificially-made Adumbrae like you, work on Erind? What are they anyway?”

“There are pills. I… I don’t know what they do or what they’re made of—the people at Red Island keep the formula a secret because that’s their business. We take the pills as prescribed. Then there are psychological conditioning sessions each month. That reminds me, I’m due next week. Will those treatments work on Erind? I honestly can’t say.”

“If we can get to Red Island, maybe we can find something for Erind.”

“That’ll be hard because of the memory-erasing thing I mentioned,” Vanessa replied. But in her mind, she mentally noted that she’d ask Big Marcy about it. “And the Red Island’s location is a complete secret, even to most higher-ups.”

“So, our other option for Erind is Euphonia,” Deen said, “and other Adumbrae like her. If we can find their secret, we can keep Erind from becoming a monster.”

“But Erind is already a monster,” Vanessa said. “Just like me. There’s nothing wrong—”

“Erind is not a monster!” Deen burst out. The floor shook, and the walls rattled.

Vanessa saw from through the eye familiar trailing them that Deen stomped her foot. Vanessa bristled at the possible fight. Adrenaline coursed through her body as she balled her fists. She wanted to turn around, but Erind held her still with surprising strength.

“I don’t know about you,” Deen continued. “You may consider yourself a monster, but don’t lump in Erind with you. You chose what you became—Erind didn’t.”

Vanessa wanted to point out to Deen that Adumbrae, like Erind, also chose their fates. “Are you forgetting—?” She started to say, but Erind elbowed her.

“Shut up, you two,” Erind said.

She didn’t snap or shout. She just talked straight, without raising her voice, but it was enough to make Vanessa frightened. Deen also faltered.

“But she’s—” Deen said after composing herself.

“Shut up.”

Vanessa saw Deen lower her hands.

“And Vanessa…” said Erind.

“What?”

“Your mouth familiars are noisy.”

Vanessa jerked back and then checked her right arm. Some mouths opened, whispering words she didn’t want to listen to. Her agitation affected them. She tried to calm herself so that they could go back to sleep. She’d need to have new metal bands made to secure them.

“Let’s focus on finding Mom,” Erind said. “Vanessa, anything?”

“Sorry,” Vanessa said. “I wasn’t paying attention when—footprints!”

“Footprints?

“I sent some familiars upstairs. Nothing on the upper floors, so the Tea Party members don’t go up. But the dust on the floor was recently disturbed.”

“Is it Mom?”

“Possibly. I’m sure there are no Tea Party members here.”

“It might also be the other hostages,” Deen said. “They might know where your mom went.”

“Okay, we’re going up,” decided Erind. “Don’t forget our story. Also, yell out generic stuff so Mom won’t get surprised. And, uh…”

“What is it?” asked Deen.

“I just realized a problem. It’ll be hard to explain why I look… like this. My clothes are half-burnt, but I don’t have any injuries. If we can find something for me to wear first.”

“I know where the rooms used by the Tea Party are,” Vanessa said. “Maybe they had left behind a shirt, a vest, anything.”

“We’ll tell Mom I was pretending to be them! Nah, that’s a bad story. I’m too short to be—anyway, let’s find me a shirt first.”

“And we better do it fast,” Vanessa said, barely able to control her voice. She hugged Erind’s shoulders. “Because I found your mother!”