Chapter 21.

Love you.

Damien Reyes/Sarah Reyes.

Time/Area: NYC, 2013 July 13th.

I expected to wake up to my dad asking questions, but no one was in my room.

“That’s weird.” I thought, standing up. After putting on some clothes, I walked out into the living room. The TV was on, and my parents were both watching intently. They didn’t even notice me walk in,

“Um, hello?” I quizzed.

I swore I saw a tear roll down Mom’s face. I quickly looked at the TV.

“Breaking News: Energis test in Le Marais, Paris went wrong. Multiple eyewitnesses claim to have seen monsters rampaging the streets, but no further news has been provided due to some apparent technological interference. The president of the United States, Henry Jackson, has not yet issued a statement on the ‘monster’ sightings, but many around the globe have decided not to take this literally. Although these controversially believed sightings originated from Le Marais, neighboring areas around Paris seem to also be affected by the Interference cloud, leaving the world in the dark for now. Most believe that the interference cloud is the real thing everyone should be focusing on, but none can deny the strangeness of this situation...”

Monsters?

The heck?

I felt sweat roll down my neck, “Sarah’s in Marais.”

My parents looked at me, “It’ll b-be alright Damien.” Mom spoke, not sounding like she even believed her own words, “Nobody really knows what’s g-going on.”

My mother had never sounded any less than confident my entire life, “Are there actually monsters in Paris? Do they have like...pictures?!”

Dad shook his head, still staring at the TV, “No, it looks like all electronics around there have been fried. Most of this stuff is coming from a surge in texts and phone calls made from out of Paris last night...right before the ‘interference cloud’ started happening.”

“Nobody has a picture?!” I thought that over again.

“Mijo,” My mom said,

“Don’t worry about Sarah...just go to your room. Church has been cancelled today due to the weather outside.”

I slowly nodded while walking back to my room. Once I was inside and closed the door, I opened the blinds on my window.

It was pouring outside, lightning crackling in the distance. The lightning reminded me of something.

Jason. I should call him...maybe he was going through a similar thought process.

Before I could call Jason, I jumped at the sound of my father yelling,

“What do you mean I shouldn’t go! Our daughter is over there!” My dad shouted.

My mother’s voice rose too, “What’s on the TV isn’t fully true Andre! And if you are going, I am going!”

“Esperanza, who's going to take care of Damien!?”

“You do it then!” She responded, “I’ll go-!”

“No!” Dad shot down her idea. I flinched a little.

“Well, you heard what they were talking about on the news,” Mom started, “W-what if that Electrical Interference messes with planes. How are you going to get there?”

If Dad had an answer to that question, I couldn’t hear it. After a couple of seconds of silence, I realized that they had probably realized the volume of their voices.

I didn’t want to leave my room. Hearing them argue over what I wanted to believe wasn’t true hurt in ways I couldn’t describe.

Instead of thinking about that, I grabbed my phone out of its charger and dialed Jason’s number.

…

“Dude, are you good?” He answered extremely quickly.

“I-i’m fine,” I responded, “...did you hear about the monsters in Paris?”

“They’re popping up all over, not just in Paris.” He said, “First a whole bunch of monster reports...Then a massive blackout...none are confirmed though. It’s on the internet, but the only one the TV is talking about as of now is the Paris thing. This is insane...”

I shivered a bit, trying for what I hated to think was an unrealistic sense of optimism, “W-well it’s all a prank, right?” I tried anyway.

He paused, “...Some prank.”

“Jason, my sister is in Paris.”

Another pause,

“Dude, your sister is fine. If there are such things as monsters now, I’m pretty sure they’d be scared of her.”

I knew that was supposed to be reassuring, but it didn’t really help how I felt, “Thanks, but why do you sound so worried?”

“I don’t know,” He admitted, “Monsters might start popping up here so-”

“Don’t say that.” I cautioned, “Everyone’s gonna be fine.”

I heard him sigh, “Melissa is pretty freaked out...since her sister’s BFF is in Paris too. Why is everyone in Paris?”

I coughed, “Melissa’s sister’s BFF.... is Sarah.”

Jason choked, “OH! That makes a lot more sense now.”

I tried to change the subject from Sarah, “S-so what’s up with you?”

“Erm, well, my mom and dad are out on a business trip right now. They should be about to board, actually.”

I slowly nodded, remembering what my mom had suggested but deciding to keep that to myself, “So it’s just you?”

“I have a nanny that’s supposed to come here, but I don’t know, I think she was supposed to be coming from around Paris, and the number my parents gave me to call her isn’t working.”

I frowned, “Anything I can do?”

I heard him sigh, “Nah, I’m just a little...you know- spooked at all this. I mean, how did this all happen over one night?”

I looked down on my bed sheets, wondering if I should’ve tried harder to keep Sarah here,

“I don’t know,” I shrugged to myself, “I hope your parents are okay.”

“Thanks,” Jason said, “Wanna come over? For like...apocalypse preparation? You can invite Selina too if you want.”

I thought for a moment, trying to dismiss the ‘apocalypse’ thing from my brain, “Let me call Selina and see,” I said, “If we do, bring Melissa too.”

“Okay, bye dude, don’t die.”

He hung up.

I immediately called Selina, absently folding my arms together as the rain came down even harder against my bedroom window like an endless siege of arrows.

…

“Where should we meet!?!” She yelled. It sounded like she was walking, as the sound of crashing water was pounding through my receiver.

I coughed, surprised by how prepared she was for my call, “Ummm, Jason’s house?”

“GREAT! We need to DISCUSS this monster SITUATION! JEEZ, I hate the rain!”

I chuckled nervously, “S-selina the monster thing might not even be real s-”

“RIIIGHT, keep telling yourself that. I have watched EVERY monster movie in existence and the fools who believe that ALWAYS die first! And my boyfriend isn’t DYING tonight! IF you die, I’ll kill you myself!”

She hung up.

I couldn’t help but smile when she called me her boyfriend, but the fact that she believed the monster thing scared me a bit.

After grabbing my coat and tucking my phone in my pocket, I ran out into my living room, my heart sinking when I saw Dad and Mom sitting quietly on the couch. The TV wasn’t even on.

“I-I’m going to Jason’s house.” I informed them.

Dad was rubbing his temples, his eyes burning into the carpet as part of himself was clearly elsewhere, “Don’t do anything stupid in the rain.”

Mom was in a similar position, “Be careful, Mijo.”

I nodded sullenly, backing out of our apartment door before shutting and locking it.

“This can’t be happening.” I thought, pulling the hood of my jacket over my head as I stepped into the rainy sidewalks of Bronze street.

I began a moderate paced jog towards Draxon.

If there was an actual monster apocalypse going on, did that mean I still had to go to school next week?

That might’ve seemed like an ill-timed question, but I would ask anything to stop my mind from wandering to places I didn’t need it to go.

-

I rang the doorbell a couple of times when I reached Jason’s house, not wanting to be out in the rain any longer than I had to be.

Jason opened the door.

Confusion littered my eyes as I stared at him.

He was wearing a long sleeve shirt, pants with all sorts of pads on, a bicycle helmet was hanging around his neck, and he was carrying a real axe around on his back that was probably from his dad’s weapon collection.

He looked around before pulling me inside, slamming the door shut as if there was a monster behind me.

“Dude!” He yelled, “Why aren’t you in gear?”

I sighed, welcoming the house’s heating system in contrast to the cold weather outside, “You really think this is real?”

He motioned around, “Judge me later. Where’s Selina? ”

I gulped, “Uhh, she'll be here in a second. Where’s Melissa?”

He shrugged, “I’ll call her now...there is food in the fridge and more pads upstairs.”

With that, Jason turned on his heels and dashed up the dark oak staircase that led to the Mansion’s second level.

I rolled my eyes as the doorbell suddenly rang. Whoever was out front was making me seem like a pluviophile, since the obnoxious noise boomed at least 50 times before I got to the door.

I opened it to find Selina, dressed in her blue leather trench coat with a pink poncho draped over it.

She brushed past me, “We need to be ready.” She said dully, throwing her poncho on the floor while splashing water across the tile.

I groaned as I closed the door, ceasing the slamming sound of water droplets once more, “I still don’t think-”

“DUDE!” She shouted, “We need to go get your sister!”

I frowned, again thinking to what my parents were arguing over, “What do you want me to do?” I pointed outside, “Planes aren’t open right now because of the weather, and Paris is where the monsters are!”

Selina scratched her chin, “We need weapons.”

“Selina, calm d-”

“Great you’re here!” Jason came back downstairs, the axe now strapped onto his back via an old looking pant belt.

Selina nodded at him, “Finally,” She said, noting the axe, “Common sense!”

Jason nodded back, “We need to ma-”

DING DONG.

Another arrival.

Selina walked over to the door and opened it. There, standing under the porch roof, was Melissa Embers. She was dressed in a simple orange long sleeve and pants to compliment her dirty blonde colored hair.

“LEMME INNN!” She yelled, charging into the house.

She looked around, “Is this the group?” She asked.

I sighed, my imagined character of what Lorica’s younger sister was like shattering into pieces, “Y-yeah, congrats on making it in.”

“Thanks!” She responded to my rhetorical statement. I chalked her upbeat attitude to her position on the school cheer team.

Upon seeing Jason, she ran over and hugged him, but backed up when she caught sight of the Axe.

“So this monster thing,” She started, “I’ve watched a couple of movies, but I have no idea what’s supposed to happen.”

I facepalmed myself, “We don’t know if the monsters are actually real-”

Selina placed her hand over my mouth, “Don’t listen to him,” She ordered, “He still needs training. I’m just glad there’s another girl here.”

Melissa laughed, “Glad to help!”

“I am surrounded by rich kids.” I realized.

Melissa pointed at me, “OMG! You’re Jason’s sidekick from school!”

Jason snickered, “Y-yea, that’s him.”

“Look,” I ignored Melissa’s comment, “I really just want to make sure my sister’s safe.”

Everyone nodded.

“And by the way, Melissa..” I went on, going out on a limb and assuming Melissa knew my sister, “Your sister’s best friend...Sarah Reyes...is my sister.”

Melissa coughed, “Oh! That makes sense! You look like her a lot, actually!”

Selina turned towards Jason, “So where’s the War Room J?”

I rolled my eyes for what felt like the 500th time, “There-is-no-war-Roo-”

----

The War room was Movie room #4 apparently, and had a huge round table in the center of it. It didn’t look like it was made for comfort...It actually looked like it was made for war. A ceiling projector was controlled by a laptop that sat at the head of the table, and was pointed towards a giant screen that took up the whole back wall. There was also a popcorn and drink machine to the far left.

“So..” I said, walking inside, “This is the war room.. How much unused space is in this house?”

Jason sat at the head of the table. I sat on his right, Melissa sat on his left, and Selina sat next to me.

Selina whistled, “Wow. I’m not gonna say I was kidding...but I was kind of kidding.”

Jason smiled, tapping a few buttons on his laptop.

Suddenly, a huge map of Paris was displayed on the screen. It looked to have been a screenshot of one of the maps some people showed on TV. They had used it to describe where the unconfirmed ‘monster’ sightings were across Paris before the electric disturbance.

We all stared with wide eyes at the screen.

“Alright people,” Jason started, “Once I heard the news about the apocalypse, I immediately found out where the sightings were before Paris went dark.”

He pressed the spacebar, causing mini, clearly hand drawn, circles to appear around Paris.

“Most of the sightings were in Marais before the place blacked out, but more and more sightings kept popping up.”

I was getting more worried for Sarah by the minute.

“And I also think an airport may have blown up,” He concluded, “Cuz like, a bunch of social media posts were saying something like that before well...they stopped posting.”

I began to freak out, wondering if that airport had been Sarah’s planned destination. If the posts had originated from the exact place in Paris where the testing was going on, that was scarily likely, “How will Sarah get out then?”

Jason looked down, “W-well..she-”

“She’ll figure out something,” Selina finished. There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in her voice, which calmed me, “You’d think the government could use satellites or something to take photos of what’s actually going on...” She added.

While that was a great point, it sparked another thought in my brain.

Melissa caught my expression,

“What is it?” She asked, “Do you have an idea!?

I coughed, “Yea,” I looked at Jason, “Are the phone lines down?”

Jason nodded, “Yes, just in Paris and the areas around it though-”

I rubbed my temples, “No, that’s fine... Sarah has two phones, remember?”

Jason’s confused expression slowly shifted to that of realization, “Her Satellite phone!”

Selina frowned, “Wouldn’t that only work if you had a satellite phone?” She pointed out, “I know it would normally, but If all ground phone stations in Paris are down...”

I sighed, “I have one in my house...Sarah keeps her’s on all the time though. It’s an Iridium model.”

Suddenly, Jason produced a Satellite flip phone from the inside of the Round table,

“Got it!” He declared, holding the phone up to the sky before passing it to me, “It’s Iridium too, so 8816.”

There are different kinds of Sat Phones, and the types determined what the phone number was. But those digits came only after typing the area code, and since we were calling from the U.S, I had to type in the numbers 011.

Melissa scratched her head, “You kept a satellite phone in here?”

Jason nodded, “Duh.”

I subconsciously prayed as I took the phone from J, everyone’s eyes on me as I stood up to go find a clear view of the sky. I made sure the Antenna was straight as I walked out of the ‘War Room’ and towards Jason’s room where I knew a balcony was. Everyone began to follow me. Hopefully this worked.

---------------------------Perspective Swap: Sarah Reyes.----------------

“That’s a terrible plan...Let’s do it.” Doc agreed. I tried to smile and nodded, “But uh, let’s do this first.”

Right now, we were in an abandoned building somewhere in Marais, the feeling of being trapped manifesting in reminding echoes all around us as I forced my ears to not hear the casual thump of feet outside. Feet that, I knew, didn’t belong to a human anymore. Screams typically followed that, then just...more thumping.

Thump

Thump

Thump.

All power had been shut off due to the monsters’ ability to feed on Electricity. When the virus spread far enough, that would probably be a recurring theme. Inverse had been a gas, and even though the 12 volunteers had probably contributed the most to any infection rates, the airborne part of this would be what could travel countries.

The government probably had no idea what the heck was happening, and even if they did, I doubt any communications would work from here. Somebody would actually have to come here to report on it, and I was sure anyone who tried that would be dead. Doc had suggested that maybe the government could see us through the use of space satellites, but after a bit, we determined that they probably couldn’t. Perhaps the collective electrical interference from the monsters was messing with the electromagnetic data used to form satellite photos around this area. We were, in the deepest and truest sense of the term, in a deadzone.

The building we were in now used to be an electronics store. Broken glass laid everywhere along with various half off phone chargers and Buy on get one free wire extenders. Large scratch marks littered the scene just as sporadically, each one possessing the blood stopping, glistening reflection of red within the debris of the drywall. It was a small place, only the size of a single store one might find in an outlet mall, but it still held promise. Both my phones had been fried from that Force using mutant thing, so I suggested that we first find a place like this before continuing on towards anything else. We could only salvage enough stuff from the shop to repair one device though, So we both decided to repair my Satellite phone. My cell phone wasn’t technically fried, but it was completely depowered. My Satellite phone, on the other hand, was way more useful right now. There was a very low chance it would actually work because of the apparent interference cloud, but it was worth a shot. There was a sizable hole in the roof we were under too, giving us a clear view of any stars visible through the desolate smoke that had.

My hope was that I could talk to Damien before we commenced my “Terrible” plan.

I just really wanted to hear his voice.

To know that he’s okay would be enough. I had no other family besides him and my parents. Both of our grandparents passed away, and both of our parents had no siblings,

“Almost finished up here.” I whispered, inserting three AA batteries into their correct slots inside the back of the long rectangular device. I never thought these would actually be useful,

“Done!”

Doc’s eyes widened as she brought a finger over her lips,

“Don’t yell!” She whisper shouted, “We don’t know where they are…”

I mouthed an apologetic “sorry” and pointed towards the phone.

“Go ahead..” Doc said, her voice full of doubt. I doubted that this would work too, but all of that was put to rest when a startling buzz shook the Sat phone.

“Is someone calling...us?” Doc was amazed, “W-well answer it, before it makes too much noise.”

I quickly pressed a green colored button located on the lower end of the black frame, astonished as the signal strength read ‘Medium’.

-

“H-hello?” I spoke softly, crossing my fingers.

“Sarah! You’re Okay! Guys she’s okay! It works!”

I yelped at how loud he was being, spinning a knob on the device to lower the volume, “Damien Shh!”

He quieted down to his inside voice, “W-why. What's happening? Is it true there’s monsters?”

I sighed, still relieved that it happened to be Damien calling me, “Yeah.,.and they’re everywhere.”

I heard him gulp, “Okay guys it’s true..yea...yea okay I know you knew, jeez.”

“Who are you talking to Hermano? Is Mom and Dad there?”

“Jason, Selina, and Melissa.”

Doc heard this and narrowed her eyes, “ Cole, Morgan, and Embers...What’s with this boy and rich children?”

I shrugged, “O-okay Damien you have to listen to what I’m about to say.”

“W-wait hold on!”

A pause,

“K, I think everyone can hear you.”

I cleared my throat, “Okay, can everyone hear me?”

“Yea”

“Mhm”

“Yep”

“Yes”

“So, as I’m sure you’ve assumed by now, The Energis project didn’t go so well. In summary, when a person is infected with this red gas thing, they turn into a monster.”

Doc butted in, “Oh, you will also be infected if you’ve been stabbed by a monster’s flesh spike, which is this arm thing they have. B-but it has to be glowing. It can glow different colors but I don’t know if that’s constant.”

“Oh, and some have two flesh spikes.” I went on.

“And one is black and laughs a lot.” Doc added, “They’re probably emotion based.”

“And one can use the Force.” I mentioned.

“...”

“...”

“The heck?” A girl’s voice said.

“Uh, who's that?” I asked.

Damien coughed, “Selina..”

Despite the situation, Doc laughed a little,

“Isn’t that the girl that made you feel fireworks?”

Selina’s voice came again, “Excuse me..?”

Damien switched topics,

“ANYWAYS. You said something about fleshy spikes and the Force?”

“Yea. But that’s besides the point. I just really wanted to warn you guys.. And I wanted to talk with you specifically.”

“Why? You should focus on getting out of Paris s-”

“Damien, It’ll probably happen in New York too.”

“But there’s no monsters here!”

“Doesn’t matter, the gas is airborne. Several other places have already been infected.”

...

A pause.

I heard Damien lower the volume and walk away somewhere.

“I just want you to come home. Dad and mom are arguing over who wants to go try and get you.”

A lump started to form in my throat. I looked around me as I recognized how truly unlikely that would be. I knew I shouldn’t have been thinking like that, but hearing my little brother so clearly define the problem to me...it just...made it seem so much more real.

“N-no they can’t come! Damien, we do have a plan to get back but-”

“Th-then good! So just hurry up!”

“Damien please.” I looked around again. Nothing was here yet.

I tried to phrase this in a plausible way,

“The plan is really dangerous and...and a lot of things could go wrong.”

“N-no no no you said-”

“Damien, I'm trying to get back to you!” I almost yelled, “And mom, and dad!”

“You promised.”

Just then, something outside the store shattered.

Thump

Thump

Thump

Doc gave me a worrying glance as sweat began to roll down her neck.

“I..” I didn’t know what to say, “I know I promised...but...Damien I didn’t know this-” I stopped myself, starting again a second later, “S-some promises- just can’t be kept-”

I heard him choke,

“Then why do people make them?”

I struggled to form an answer,

“I-I don’t know..we ju-”

“Were you just lying? How is this fair?!”

I looked down at the thrashed floor, feeling drops of water roll down my face,

“I’m trying. A-and tell mom and dad everything too please. I’m so so sorry, I just-”

“You can tell them yourself! Y-you have to! You promis-zzzttt”

“We’re losing him..” Doc said, watching in horror as her own hair began to stand up from the presence of static electricity, “One of them must be around... we have to move.”

I wiped my eyes, not expecting this conversation to have been so difficult, “R-right..”

I began to get up, but I took one last look at the phone,

“Damien,” I said, “If you can hear me..I-I just wanted to…” I sighed half way through, noting my own hair was beginning to stand as my body wouldn’t stop shaking,

“I love you, okay?”

Nothing but static came from the phone.

Doc patted my shoulder, “We have to go now.”

I nodded as we slowly made our way to the backdoor, careful not to step on any glass.

I kept thinking of Damien’s words,

“Why did you have to lie? Why did you have to lie? Why..”

------Perspective Swap: Damien Reyes-----------------------------------

“I-Izzt love you, Okay? zzt-”

BEEEP

“Sarah..?” I wiped my eyes, “Hey!”

Nothing but beeps came from the phone. I threw the device on the ground, hearing it crack in half as my entire mind pulsated with anger. I was in the corner of the balcony attached to Jason’s room, rain covering every part of me. My friends and Melissa were all staring at me from inside on J’s bed.

I didn’t care about them right now; I cared about my sister.

Why was the connection interrupted?

What happens if she…. was...no.

The last thing I would’ve done is yell at her.

Tears of frustration rolled down my face as I leaned against the front of the balcony, ignoring the hundreds of water droplets crashing against the back of my head as thunder boomed elsewhere.

I thought of my father’s words yesterday.

How was everything going to just be fine?

I stared up at the tall skyscrapers of New York, the weight of my combined emotions causing my hands to shake on the deck rails.

I heard Jason walk up to me. I knew it was Jason because I could hear the shaking of his axe. He just stood next to me, not saying a word as he too became soaked in rain. Selina followed shortly after and stood at my other side,

“Your sister will be OK Damien.” Jason said from my left.

“Yea,” Selina agreed, “She’s super smart.”

I continued looking into the clouds, my eyes still red,

“S-sorry,” I said, turning around, “W-we should be doing something right now.”

Selina and Jason walked with me back indoors, “You don’t need to apologize,” They said in unison.

Melissa coughed, causing the three of us to look at her.

“I just wanted to point out that my sister always thought yours was like...super cool, so yeah. She thinks she’s going to be fine too.”

I felt water drip from my hair and onto Jason’s bedroom carpet, “And what do you think?”

Melissa shrugged, “My sister is rarely wrong. I’ll call her to give an update.”

I liked this response.

-

Once we were all dry and sitting back down at the table in the War Room, Jason drew up an update on the projector,

“Okay, right now we should all focus on delivering this news to our parents and stuff.”

Selina nodded, “Yea...I think I can ask Mrs.Knight to try to convince my dad to help with..whatever..when monsters start popping up. I can ask my friend Hiru to help, but he’s probably busy right now.”

Melissa scratched her head, “My dad might not believe the monster thing, but I’ll see what I can do.”

I shook my head at how casually these three were talking. They had clearly seen too many apocalyptic movies.

I looked back at Jason, raising the two broken halves of the Satellite Phone I had reclaimed from the balcony floor, “Sorry about your phone.”

Jason waved it off, “Not that mess again.”

Selina laughed, “Yeah, no thanks.”

Jason began telling Melissa the story, clearly trying to lighten the mood but, in my opinion, doing that was impossible.

I stared up at the roof, trying to replay Sarah’s words in my head billions of times over to gain some kind of comfort, but my thoughts only worsened.

I looked back down at the two halves, squeezing them tightly as yet another burning sensation raced up my spine,

“Love you too.”