Page 38 of Dark Flame

“Yea, I found something. I found a fucking nightmare,” he said softly. Flip waited to hear his friend speak. Spook wasn’t the one to lose his temper. That specific skill seemed more prominent in Kane and himself.

“At least six of the suicides were due to their partners dying. He knew that this might happen, Flip. He was warned by everyone that if we were connected romantically, there was a danger that the broken link would change us.”

“You and Nat, Kane and Aislinn, and Valentina and I,” he blushed, “were not designed to be connected via DNA but strongly suggested we would be together. Somehow, he was able to ensure our meeting and connecting, but I damn sure can’t figure it out.”

“And Adam? Fiona?” Spook gave a short quick nod. “Fuck!”

“I know. I think Adam has already figured it out. It was clear from the beginning that both of their abilities significantly enhanced with the other around. He said when they first touched, there was a sizzle, like electricity. Others who were connected via DNA said the same thing.”

“Still, it doesn’t make the potential outcome any easier for either to handle. We know that Regan and Ivy are paired via DNA. It’s why he hovered over her and her him when they were ill. I can’t quite figure out how their skills align. It doesn’t give any clue to that. Kat and Nash have complementary powers but are not paired together romantically. So, we know that there is a chance that we were all paired in two ways, skill and love. But we also know that none of the others have found their pair.”

“Wait,” said Flip, “we know that Nash found Jessica. So, are you saying the others don’t have one or that they died?”

“I guess… Well, if I look at those that died, some were supposed to be paired with the guys here. This one,” he said, pointing to the date. “Caroline Shui was an honors student at MIT. Genetically she was paired with Griffin. It says here that she killed herself in a mental hospital after her parents forced her to commit for forty-eight hours due to disturbing phenomena in their home. Yet, Griffin seems fine.”

“Did they ever meet?” asked Flip.

“No, not that I can see,” said Spook, flipping through the stacks of paper.

“Then maybe, just maybe, if they haven’t met yet, the connection hasn’t fully formed, and they don’t kill themselves. It doesn’t help Ivy and Regan or Adam and Fiona, but it may help the others in some small way.”

“I think you’re right,” said Spook. “Let’s keep looking and see what we can come up with.”

Spook and Flip scoured through the endless stacks of paper, reading the details of all the children and their skills. Each child at the Depot, if already born, was chosen specifically for the program. If there was a promising couple that could produce an offspring for the program, they would make that happen. But in the case of someone who already had a child, a team of specialists were sent out to interview the potential ‘employees,’ in this case, the parents. They asked to meet the family so they could get an idea of the needs they would have at the Depot. Unbeknownst to the parents, the children were scanned and tested as they spoke.

It was the children that secured the jobs for the parents. If they were a match for Moore’s experiments, then the parents were hired.

From the moment the children stepped foot on the Depot, they were watched. Hundreds of video cameras were hidden in and around their homes, at their schools, on the interior buildings, even on fences and playgrounds.

Each was gradually exposed to the dust, then filmed, followed, and every step of their childhood documented. What the team was unaware of was that many of the children died from the pink dust before they reached a maturity level for their gifts. Still more died from the gifts themselves.

Two children, who possessed the ability to morph into animals, died during their second attempts. The strain on their tiny bodies was far too great, killing them both. A third child, a boy, possessed the ability of flight, or at the very least, levitation. The skill, however, was sporadic and often would be uncontrolled while in air. He died falling from a test flight.

In every case, somehow, the experimentation team at the Depot was able to get a hold of the children and conduct their tests. Moore actually had a team of interferers. He would send them out to get the parents distracted, ask them to come into work for a while, offering to babysit. When the parents were gone, the children were put to the test.

Flip scanned the documents one by one. His heart stopped cold as he read his own file. His parents, blissfully unaware that he was being watched, trusted the Depot’s daycare center to watch him late nights when they were called in for some bogus emergency. And in each file, without exception, parents were killed off to allow the Depot greater access to the child or young adult.

He read the document over and over again, visions of his childhood flashing before him. When he reached the document on Nadine, he skimmed each line carefully. It seemed Nat’s mother wasn’t fired but knew she was on borrowed time, so she snuck away in the dead of night. It didn’t sit well with the Depot, who would have killed her themselves if things had not escalated with Nat. Sally and Chet were indeed paid for by Moore, and when they were no longer needed, they were eliminated.

Flip sat back, fisting his hair in his hands. He let out a long slow breath. Spook watched his friend. She would be crushed to know that the couple she thought of as her saviors were actually hired by Moore.

“You okay, brother?” he asked softly.

“Yea. Yea, I’m fucking fantastic. I mean, who wouldn’t be, right?” Spook eyed his friend, watching the anger in him rise slowly. “I mean, I’m reading my childhood history like some super fucking science fiction novel, but hey, all’s good. My girlfriend’s childhood was so fucked up. No one seemed to even give a shit, ignoring her pleas and cries every time social services showed up at her home. That fucker actually paid off social services! He made sure that no one took her from that hellhole she lived in.”

Spook sat silently, watching his friend. He knew this was difficult for him. It was difficult for all of them.

“Her siblings? The other children good old Delores had? They were killed, all of them. They’d been part of the master plan by Moore, but because they possessed no abilities, they were eliminated. Kat thought she was selling them, but I mean, that’s so much better, right?” He stood, tossing his chair across the room. The floorboards began to shake, the roof creaked with his anger.

“Brother,” whispered Spook, standing slowly, staring at this friend.

Flip turned, his fists clenched at his sides, his face was flame red, and his eyes seemed to be piercing the very walls themselves. He saw the look of concern in his friend’s face and let out a long slow breath. The door flew open, Valentina stood in the light, her curves heaving up and down as she struggled to regain her breath.

“I felt,” she said, holding her stomach, “I felt the anger. I knew you were near, but I didn’t know exactly where.” She was quiet, her voice directed at Spook. He smiled at the woman and held out his hand.

“It’s alright. Flip and I have just been reviewing the records of everyone.”

“Oh,” she said softly, reaching for his hand. He pulled her tight against him and gave a gentle squeeze.

---