Dark Angel (A 001 prequel story)

11 - Salvation

"You're not focusing on the game" Eight scolded her and made her last move "You lost again".
Rose didn't care of chess. She quickly moved the pieces to start another match.

"I was thinking about how your power works" Rose admitted "Can you cast illusions even on devices? I mean we have cameras spying on us day and night...".
"I can try, but what can I show them? Me trying to strangle you?" Eight chuckled at Rose's alarmed face "I want to see how quickly they run to save you. Just to see that we are innocently playing. Isn't it funny?".
Rose had to admit that it was an amusing and interesting thing.
She glanced at the other side of the room, where Peter was playing with Eleven and checking her poor attempt with telekinesis.

"Can you two marry?".
Rose snapped her attention back to Eight's grinning face "What?".
"I see how you like each other. He saved you like a Prince Charming. And now he hates me so much he can't even look at me again. Isn't it what adults do? Get married when they like each other?".
Rose blushed and picked a fallen piece before it could roll to the ground "I have no experience with weddings. Do people get married often here?".
"No. Never heard of weddings nor newborns, unless the new kids that I'm not allowed to play with. It's just that if you get married, I want to be your bride's maid. It seems cool. And then I want to see the biggest white cake and eat half of it".
Rose smiled awkwardly at the innocence in her wishes.
But felt her cheeks on fire at the idea of being the bride, being married to Peter and anything it meant after that.

"I doubt he will ever ask me to marry me" she murmured.
Eight raised a brow then everything around them changed.
Rose found herself in a beautiful white dress, flowers in her styled hair, in a magical landscape with birds singing around her. Peter was standing under a tree, so gorgeous in a suit that stole her breath away. Eight stepped into her vision and smiled at her, wearing a pale blue dress and handing her a bouquet...

"Eight!" Peter called angrily and the illusion vanished.
Rose inhaled sharply and turned to him, waving a hand "It's alright. Nothing wrong".
Eight wiped her nose pretending she was focusing on her next move, then turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him.
Rose chuckled and when they focused on the game again, she murmured "Thank you".
Eight shrugged "Anytime".

You're my world, you're night and day
You're my world, you're every breath I take
Other eyes see the stars up in the skies
But for me, they shine within your eyes

Every breath felt like floating in the sky.
Rose couldn't stop humming to herself.
She missed music.
Thinking of Peter made her wish to sing aloud a song that she couldn't fully remember but that fit with how she felt.

As the trees reach for the sun above
So my arms reach out to you for love
With your hand resting in mine
I feel a power so divine

You're my world, you are my night and day
You're my world, you're every prayer I pray
If our love ceases to be
Then it's the end of my world for me

Peter was her world.

Rose couldn't stop thinking of the dreamy vision that the girl showed her.
It wasn't real but she wished it could happen someday.
She and Peter weren't even openly dating. He insisted that they had to be discreet, that they couldn't show what they felt for each other or it would become their weakness.
And she couldn't bear the idea of being forced apart from him, of any of them being punished in the electroshock room.
In those days they couldn't find a moment to be alone or to go back practicing underground.
Rose was always escorted, unless she was with the children.
Brenner tested her, telling her that he was monitoring her health, but she felt like a lab rat.
The new year came and most of the staff was back from the vacations.

Rose didn't ask for anything, but one evening Eight pretended to feel sick, making people gather around her.
Peter grabbed her hand and pulled her away before anyone could notice their disappearance.
They stopped only when they were safe from cameras, in a fire escape route.
Peter didn't waste a second and pushed her against the wall, kissing her like he had been holding his breath for all that time and needed her to breathe.
His hands slammed hers above her head and she was just so grateful that finally all that waiting was worthy.

"Did you miss me so much?" he teased when he left her to catch his breath.
"Yes" she shut him up by kissing him more roughly.
When they were both breathless, she kissed his cheeks and moved to explore his neck as he chuckled.
After he had recovered, she just wanted him more and got so many new fantasies she wanted to try.
She pulled him closer, wrapping an arm around him, when her fingertips touched something unusual just behind his ear.
Before she could react, she felt a hand wrapping around her hand to stop her. It was an iron grip.

Rose leaned back, noticing how rigid he had turned.
She cursed herself for forgetting that he had a wound there and it could still hurt him, but she had felt something else under his skin.

"What's that?" she asked, trying not to complain for how his grip was hurting her wrist. He had stopped her blood.
Eventually he seemed to realize that and let her go, stepping away from her.
"Peter...".
"I don't want to talk about it" he said, all the passion and lust gone in the blink of an eye.
"I'm sorry" she said, still confused on what was going on and what happened to him.
"I don't blame you" he said harshly.
"But what is that? What did they do to you?".
He sighed and replied with a less harsh tone "It's a tracking device. It's called Soteria".
"Salvation" she murmured, translating it from Greek.
He nodded "But it's my hell".

Rose breathed, trying to put all the pieces together. And suddenly it made sense.
"So you didn't stab yourself. You wanted to get rid of it".
His gaze confirmed it "Is it a sin to want to be free?".
"You want to leave this place. Why they don't let you?".
The other members of the staff were free to leave the building. Why he was different? Why he was a prisoner?
"We know too much. Far too much for their liking. They don't trust me enough. They know I don't fully agree with their methods".
"But it hurts you? That thing?".
He nodded slowly, making the truth even harder to digest.
"That's why you are always angry".
He cut their distance to take her face into his palms "I've been less angry since you are here, caring for me. I'm grateful".
"I wish I can help you".
"You are already helping me" he pulled her into a hug and she drowned into his arms, feeling so sad for him. If he wasn't fully happy she was unable to be happy as well.
"What if we just fly away? Far far away where they can't reach us?".
He chucked in her hair and pulled her down so they sat on the floor.
"You may learn to fly but you won't be able to take me with you. I'd let you fly away".
She scoffed "As if I'd let you here".
Trapped. Were they trapped into that building?
"Some Greek philosopher said that life is like sailing" he said softly distracting her from her sad thoughts "The death of young people is a shipwreck, while the death of old people is a safe landing at a port".
Why was he talking of death? It made her more unsettled.
She wrapped her arms tightly around him "Then I wish we can sail together and avoid storms and shipwrecks".
"Same" she felt his lips against her temple curve into a smile "We will sail together in this hell".

A/N

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

"The death of young people constitutes a shipwreck. The death of the old is a dockage in the port" is a quote by Plutarch, who also wrote: "The spiders catch the flies and let the wasps escape"
Clever spiders 🕷🕸

Wasn't it time for Rose to find out some of Peter's secrets? 👀

And tonight finally Jamie will be at Fallon's show 😍

New chapter very soon 🔜