The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 17

CriSPe INSTITUTE

08.01.846 - 9:00 PM

Lélia's voice echoed through all the walls of the CriSPe, and in a highly alarming tone.

"Emergency Quadrant D, Emergency Quadrant D," she said as she opened her office door and ran to the elevator. "Agents, south parking lot now, all armed and prepared for combat," Lélia entered the elevator and then repeated it all over again while her voice echoed through all the building walls.

A few floors down from the ground, about 20 people were startled by Lélia's alarm. Everyone looked at each other fearfully, afraid this wasn't training. Since Lélia's direction, there had never been a Quadrant D situation. The most significant emergency recorded in the last 25 years was a girl who ran away from her parents and hid in a friend's house, being found less than twenty-four hours.

Lélia picked up her communicator as she crossed the entrance hall towards the glass doors connected to the parking lot.

"Richard," she said to the device. She stepped out into the cool of the night, watching the body hovering just in front of her. When facing the scene, Lélia began to cry desperately when Richard answered.

"Richard, My Goddesses, Richard! Help me!" She said.

At that moment, inside the institute, through the glass doors, the stairway door could be seen opening with a bang and several people running out in a line, carrying weapons of intimidating size. A girl floated in the air, her eyes wide, blood running down all her extremities. Her body split in two; the upper part floated a few centimeters above the lower part, her arms were open, forming a cross. Floating on the dead girl's side there was an ancient-looking scythe. The armed agents surrounded Lélia, one of the agents pulled Lélia by the arm, causing her MC to fall to the ground.

"Lélia, let's go inside, now!" Shouted the girl.

Lélia was escorted into the Institute by four women; one of them picked up the fallen MC and put it in her pocket, not noticing the active connection. The other agents opened their palms in the sky towards the girl cut in two. Her body began to descend, sometimes the upper part colliding with the lower part causing droplets of blood to . The scythe, stained with blood, was still floating in the air. The white lights coming from the parking posts made the dead girl even paler. Lélia watched the scene with her jaw dropped. While entering the institute, she took charge of the situation and freed herself from the girls.

"Stop, leave me," she then pulled her hair back; the girls gave her space. She paced back and forth, her right hand cupping her mouth while her left hand rested on her waist. "Lidia, please find my communicator," she said to one of the girls.

"It's here," said one of the girls handing the device to Lélia.

"Barbara, Flávia and Linda, give instructions to the others not to touch the body. Leave it out of the Institute. Somebody find an ambulance. We'll take the body to town. Communicate to the girl's parents. I'll go to my office."

Sitting in her chair, Lélia turned on her notebook screen.

"Call Richard," she said.

The screen turned bluish, pulsing. There was only one call, and then Vaughan's desperate face appeared on the screen.

"Lélia, what happened?" He questioned. Besides him, Richard's face also appeared.

"Lélia, are you okay?"

"I am, boys, I am. One of the CriSPe students was murdered right now," she said.

"What?" Questioned the two at the same time, eyes wide.