Alt+Control Chapter 41

“Lukas,” he says, turning around. “This isn’t another of your sick games, is it?”

“No, I’m afraid. This is entirely of her own will.”

For a second, I’m afraid that Marc will snap, like he did with Mr. Sharpo. Instead, he just turns to me with sad eyes. “If this is your choice, I’ll respect it.”

“I’m sorry.” I know it’s not enough, but it’s all I can say right now. It’s all I can think of saying.

“There’s no need for you to be.” Marc’s eyes turn colder, flatter and devoid of emotion.

Lukas comes up to me with Chimera on his lap. “Are you ready?” he asks me.

“Yes.” I drain all emotion from my mind, and slip into a meditative state. I close my eyes.

“I’m warning you, it’s going to hurt.”

Before panic can flood back in, I feel a hand grasp mine. I smile. “Thanks, Marc,” I say graciously without opening my eyes.

“No problem. Just squeeze when it starts to really hurt.”

Lukas releases my arms, and rubs what feels like a wet cotton ball in the inside of my elbow. I shift my hold on Marc’s hand, and prepare myself.

Lukas doesn’t give me a warning. He just plunges the wires into the crook of my arm.

At first, it feels like a normal needle, like the ones I’ve had when getting vaccines. This isn’t too bad…did Lukas think I was that sensitive to pain?

All of a sudden, a roaring, excruciating pain runs through my veins. It feels as if fire was crawling up my insides. I want to scream, but instead, I just hold onto Marc’s hand and bite on my lip. But along with that pain, something deliciously smooth sneaks up into my mind, dulling the pain. It’s something that makes me feel absolutely invincible. Eventually, the pain was gone, and all I could experience was the heady drunkenness this was giving me. I shiver in delight.

I open my eyes, and find that although the room is the same grey dismal room it was to begin with, I can sense something else. It feels like a bunch of different heartbeats, all beating out their own rhythm on their own times. I let go of Marc’s hand, and my fingers inch towards Chimera. I open it carefully.  

Names pop up on the screen, coded in different colours. Somehow, I know that all the red ones belong to those who have less than a day to die, orange has a week, yellow has a month, and green is more than a month. So these are all the Chronos victims. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, but the majority is coded green.

I click on one of the red coded names. A blank, black screen pops up, with a blinking cursor. I need to save this person! As soon as I think that, my fingers move towards the keyboard, then starts typing in a string of HTML coding. The code is so complex, yet it feels as if somehow it was in the back of my mind this entire time and Chimera unlocked that hidden part of my mind.

For a period of time, I don’t know how long, I let my fingers fly across the keyboard. When I finish, the name disappears off my list.

“How does it feel, Kaya?” asks Lukas. “Do you feel it? The beats of hundreds of souls under your control…”

So that’s what the feeling was. The heartbeats, the life force of all those I can control while being with Chimera. “It feels…good.”

“Ha, told you Marc! There’s no one, even the most pure-hearted, that cannot resist the lures and thrills of power.”

“What did you add in there?” growls Marc. “You did something, didn’t you?”

“What makes you think that? I didn’t do anything harmful,” says Lukas, and he gives him an innocent looking smile. I can barely follow the conversation…my mind is exhausted for some reason.

“Nothing harmful? Tell me Lukas, before I lose my patience.”

“Ok, ok. I just gave her a little…kick I shall say. It enhances her experience, but takes quite the mental toll. She’ll fall asleep in a few moments.”

I was under the influence? I try asking him what the heck he gave me, but nothing came out. Heavy, drug-induced lids fall over my eyes, and I fall unconscious. 

A short one, but necessarily so to stop it at an appropriate place.