No Pain: Book 1

Chapter 10: Star

          I sit back at the table but I don't bother with a smile,. I look at the food in front of me; mashed potatoes, chicken and green beans. Keller never would have picked this.

"Thanks." I eat it anyway.

"Feel better?" He asks not trying to hide that he wants to catch my eye.

"I'm fine." I say too quickly but he doesn't know, I don't have to hide it from him like I did from my team.

"Okay, good." John smiles and goes back to eating his tomato soup and grilled cheese, Keller would never order that either.

John usually talks, I don't know how to talk about nothing. Everything on my mind right now is my team and the message and the little clock ticking in the back of it all.

"The end of the month." I say.

"What?" John freezes mid-bite, his spoon hovering above his bowl.

"Three and a half weeks is when the Idios are going to make their move." I say it quietly, no one else can hear it. John shouldn't be hearing it but he's helping me, he needs to know that we don't have time for this kind of thing.

"That's... that's not as much time as I thought we had." John admits.

"I need my team to stop the Idios but, we'll need some time to get there and make a plan." I poke at my food, I smile so everyone else thinks I'm just being shy. A teenage girl out on a date, it's not suspicious.

"So, how long do we have to get to Najee and the others?" John asks not noticing how loud he's talking or how suspicious he looks. He looks worried.

"Two weeks, max." I say. Preferably tomorrow I think to myself but we're going to have to track them, it's going to take time and if we can't find them... I don't want to think about it.

"What if we can't find him?" John asks, for the first time not sounding annoyingly optimistic. Of course, you would ask I think. I lift my eyes to meet his, he needs to see the truth behind my words.

"I'll stop them myself." Or I'll die trying I hold his eyes as he reads mine. His eyes widen, he's understanding the severity of my words, the weight of the situation.

"But... that sounds dangerous." He says, realizing how stupid he must sound.

"My existence is dangerous." I remind him.

"Yeah... but that's a different kind of danger." John tries to reason.

"You can't understand." I shake my head and sigh "the reason you have a normal life is because people like me get rid of the dangers you never find out about."

"I know but-"

"Has Najee ever told you about the idiosyncrasies?" I ask. John shrugs "he's mentioned them but no, he doesn't say anything more than that they're the bad guys."

"They believe the natural order of the world is chaos." I twist scrape at the plate with my fork.

"Isn't it though?" John asks, "the world is already chaotic."

"No, not like the Idios believe it should be." I lean forward and drop my voice lower "the Idios think war chaos, is natural chaos; people, animals, anything living, fighting against each other declaring more land, taking over as much Earth as possible."

"People already do that though." John argues. I can't help but laugh a little, he's just so naïve.

"To a degree, yes, they do." I say, "and to a degree the Idios are right, the natural order of life is chaos but answer me this." I make sure he is looking at my eyes before I go on. "Do you believe that it should be the way of life, that in broad daylight, on a busy street it'd be okay, normal even, if someone were to punch you in the face or try to rob you while everyone goes about their day." I watch his eyes "Or perhaps some passerby wants some too, perhaps they'll gang up on you and the two that just robbed you can fight each other for what they took after they've finished with you."

John's brows furrow in confusion"but how..."

"Idios are sociopaths, they believe everyone should be like them." I lean back and sip the sprite John ordered for me. Keller would have ordered a martini for herself and a tea for me. "Unfortunately, human kind is not inherently compassionate."

"What do you mean?" John doesn't believe that.

"I mean, if the Idios were to succeed in their plan, the first human instinct people would grab onto is survival. Even if it's at the cost of everyone else."

"What, exactly, are they trying to do?" John asks. Of course he can't possibly grasp this. He hasn't ever gone up against an Idio.

"And why haven't they succeeded if it's so easy to send humans into chaos?" John demands.

"They are chaos." I say simply "they can't carry out a plan, they're great at small scale chaos. Civil war type chaos. Knocking out the street lights of an entire state. Relisting harmless abnormalities as dangerous types." I shrug, these are no big deal, easy messes to clean up.

"So, what makes this so different?" John shakes his head "if they can't carry out a plan what makes this one different?"

"I can't tell you that." I say to him "you don't have the proper classifications."
"Classifications?" His jaw drops.

I nod "and it's too dangerous for someone like you to know anyway."

"Someone like me?" John asks, "someone who's soft, right?"

I can't help but smile "yes and no, but torture makes even the strongest of men break."

"Oh, and you can't be-" he chokes on the words just before they could slip out.

"No." I say looking him in the eye, I can feel my sleeve getting sticky. "I can't."

"Sorry." John drops his eyes "I just can't believe this stuff," He shakes his head, his entire belief system is put into question with what I've already told him.

"people are good." He says more to himself than me "and the Idios might be dangerous but whatever they're planning has to be pretty big if it's going to affect the whole world."

"It's big." I assure him. He just watches me, Najee didn't prepare him to deal with me like this. Najee thought that I would just run away, stay in Australia work nine to five, hang out with his mom on Sundays. I feel myself sinking into a mood. I press my wrist into the table to staunch the bleeding. 

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