(The New) Power of the 8 Elements: Part One

Chapter Twenty Four: Use

"Your trauma is not your fault, but your healing is your responsibility." - UNKNOWN
PRESENT DAY
THRAX

Nereid and I walk down the empty street. I make sure that my guns are loaded while Nereid twirls her knives up in the air and begins juggling them carelessly while humming a song to herself.

"You know, I get the feeling that we're being used," Nereid says.

"Yeah, no sh*t, Sherlock," I say.

"We should rebel."

"Are you forgetting something?"

"Hm?"

"I need to make viruses think that I'm actually doing something, and you have nowhere to go. Your parents are dead, and without the Evil Angel, you have no family. You're too young to live on your own."

Nereid stops playing with her weapons and puts them and her hands in her pocket. She turns away from me. I realize that I've hurt her feelings. I try to keep myself from pitying her, but I can't help it.

"I—I'm sorry." She looks at me. 'Sorry' is not a word that I am very used to saying. "I went too far. I know how that makes you-" I sniff, thinking of my own failure of a mother. "-feel."

"It's okay," she says.

I sigh and tighten my tie, but it's already pretty taut, and if I do it anymore I'll probably suffocate myself.

"What's your problem? That's, like, the fifth time you've tightened your tie."

"Oh, I didn't realize," I say.

"I'm honest with you. You can be honest with me."

I groan. "I'm having a really crappy day, okay?"

"What happened?"

"Nothing..."

"...so...how do you know this guy?"

"I worked for him once."

"You worked for him?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Look, the plan is we go in, I distract him, we ask to borrow some of his scrap metal. He'll let me."

"Will he?"

I inhale and exhale, knowing that we're standing right in front of his base. "Hopefully." I turned to her. "If he says something, no matter what it is, pretend like it never happened. Try not to think of me any differently."

"What do you mean? What could he say?"

"Anything," I say, reaching for the steel doors and pulling them open.

I bring out my tendrils. Sometimes Herpes liked to give people jumpscares as soon as they set foot in his buildings. He was somewhat known among the virus community. People who worked for him were often loan sharks. As I walk down the dark corridor, Nereid seems to pick up that I'm incredibly uneasy and terrified. I'm usually never this way, but there was something about meeting Herpes again that was giving me qualms.

"Remember what I said," I say before entering the main room.

Nereid nods. I open up the doors and put on my best show smile. That's how the virus world goes. I make my way down the long cement path while Nereid follows nervously. Herpes' desk sits at the end of the room. Loan sharks, some demonic light ones, stand by the thick pipes holding up this place holding revolvers and constantly spinning the cylinders to show that they are not playing around.

I finally arrived at the edge of the desk. Sitting right behind him is a large tank filled with a bright, glowing, green liquid. Herpes turns around in the chair, all four arms pressed together.