Touched - Order of Odium: Book One

Michelle - 4

Something fell to the ground next to the box with a moist thump.

On the guard station, John said "What the hell? What is that..." His voice trailed off.

Michelle opened her eyes and looked at the object. Disbelief coursed through her as her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

A noise from the guard station distracted Michelle from the object on the floor.

John was slumped down onto the metal flooring, his head had fallen forward, hiding his face.

Both scientists were taking notes as Michelle ran up the stairs to John, her heart racing for two vastly different reasons. As she ran she called for a medic to come to the room.

"John! Hey John!" Michelle shook John, shouting at him to get his attention. "John! Hey man wake up!" She rubbed her knuckles against his sternum, hoping to wake him from his faint, or whatever had happened to him. When the sternal rub failed to rouse John, she ground her feet against the metal floor and hefted John onto his back.

She grabbed one of his wrists in her hands and began to check for a pulse. She glanced at his pale, ashen face and noticed that he also had no pulse.

'John... Did I do this somehow? Was that your-'

The door to the room opened, making Michelle lose her train of thought. Two medics assessed the situation and went up the stairs towards John and began asking questions.

"What happened? How long has he been like this?"

Aleksander spoke up from behind them, "We were experimenting. After the experiment had taken place, the guard on the floor collapsed. That was approximately two minutes ago."

Michelle looked at the scientists, standing calmly while someone she had considered a friend was dying. The two showed no outward emotion, even taking occasional notes while the medics loaded John onto a hovering stretcher-like device and brought him out of the room. Despite knowing that everyone who ranked above her in the Order should always be courteous to their superiors, she seethed at their callousness. Even if they didn't know John as she did, shouldn't they at least give a shit about people?

"Why the hell didn't you two do anything? You just stood there taking notes while I had to check to see if my friend was dead! What the fuck!" Her mind was reeling, but she slowly began to put events together, even before the shorter scientist Steven began to explain.

He spoke with a slight Midwestern accent, his voice exhibiting no emotion. "Ms. Floretta, you have to understand. After you put your hand on the artifact the second time, did you see what appeared?"

"Yes," she said, beginning to cry. "Was this my fault?"

Steven spoke again "Yes and no. You see, because you were the one who touched the artifact and because of the way your touch effects it, it was technically your fault. But you were trying to get a red bowl to appear, right? Well, this is all very complex and we are just starting to figure out some very base assumptions about this artifact, but somewhere a misinterpretation of sorts happened."

Steven looked at the object on the ground. The one that she had... summoned? Is that the correct word? Through her tears, Michelle heard Steven continue, "It seems that instead of a red bowl appearing, the artifact, for lack of a better word, teleported your partner's heart from his chest and into this room."

He was still talking but Michelle had shut him out. At some point, Aleksander began talking also, his polish accent and joyful speech bringing Michelle out of herself.

"You see? This was not your fault at all! A miscommunication between you and the artifact! You were thinking 'red bowl' and the artifact interpreted that as 'heart'. These things are both red, right? So we already made progress!"

Aleksander continued speaking, saying something about John's "sacrifice" and helping people, but Michelle had retreated into her thoughts, sobbing.

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