As soon as Jade opened the door fluorescent lights reigned down, temporarily blinding her. All she could see for the next thirty seconds were blue and purple splotches. How was there even electricity down here?
She heard papers shuffle and even though she couldn’t quite make out a face, she fell back in fright. Someone was in the room with her. What compelled her to even open that stupid door? She tried rubbing her eyes, but it just made the splotches worse. She still couldn’t see who she was dealing with.
“You! Little girl on my floor. What are you doing?” Jade’s eyes finished adjusting and she was left with a man who looked like he was in his thirties.
Jade didn’t respond to him. Instead she took in what she was looking at. The man was wearing what seemed to be an ancient lab coat, with glasses perched upon his very straight and long nose. The room was just as disheveled as he was. The trashcan was overflowing with crumpled up paper balls and dozens of papers were pinned to the walls.
“Well? Who the Hel are you? Who are you to just barge into my office? Oh, gods. You’re not a new one are you? I have a system, you know?” He spat.
Jade was still too dumbstruck to reply. She only had an inkling of who she thought she was talking to. And if she was right…
“Are you going to say something, little girl? At least get off of the ground.” He motioned.
“Little girl?” She repeated. “I’m twenty-six.”
“Twenty-six is like a fifth of my age. You are a little girl!”
“Oh, so what? You’re a hundred and thirty?” She retorted. She said it as if she didn’t believe it, but she most certainly did.
“Yes, but I don’t look a day over thirty-two, do I? What can I say? I age well.” He smirked.
Her fears were made clear in that instant. He was who she had been looking for. Killian Neil. This realization caused her stomach to flip. She felt like she was about to be sick.
“Judging by your stare, I can tell you recognize me.” He teased. “Dr. Neil. It must be a pleasure to meet me. It’s not everyday you get to meet a doctor as famous as I.” He extended his hand to her.
She did not take it.
“You found the secret to immortality. That’s something that the gods don’t even have. You, a human, outsmarted the gods.” She said, baffled. She didn’t mean to, but she subconsciously started inching towards him. “Oh, the gods are gonna kill you.”
“Would if they could.” He laughed. “Would if they could.”
“It’s been ninety years. You should’ve been found out by now.” She speculated, “Unless someone is protecting you?”
“You’re shaking.” He informed her.
“No, I’m not.” She retorted, taking a step back.
“Yes, you are.” He laughed. “You seem to know who I am, but I still don’t know your name.”
“It wasn't hard to piece together. Your picture is in every history book we have.” She debated doing this but she did it anyway, “Jade Skrekk.”
“You’re an interesting one Ms. Skrekk. Skrekk as in terror, yes?”
“That would be the translation.” She answered.
“It’s very fitting. You’re a whole half a foot taller than me. It’s very terrifying.” He joked.
“How’d you do it?” She blurted, changing the subject back.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to be more detailed than that, darling.”
“Immortality.” She clarified.
“What kind of man would I be if I told you everything about myself on our first meeting?”
“But you’ve discovered something that shouldn’t even be possible!” She argued.
“You see, it’s all in the ingredients you use. A little bit of honeysuckle, serpent scales, Mare nightmares, and golden apples. Put that all together and bam! You’re immortal. Wait, no. You’ll need an eye of a god in there as well.” He said reading off one of the lists on the wall. “The eye of a god is the most crucial ingredient. It won’t work without it.”
She was further intrigued than she should’ve been. She was standing in the same room as a criminal, yet she wanted to know more about his research. First of all, she wanted to know why he wasn’t a animalistic mutation.
“You’re wondering why I’m doing this, aren’t you? I was actually instructed with the task of finding immortality. I'm a well known scientist, and quite frankly, the only one who could do it. And I did ‘technically’ find it, but there's always side effects. Some people lose their minds, while others don't. By the way, I appreciate all the work you Champions put into temporarily getting rid of the rogue mutations. It’s a big help.”
“So you’re a mutation, I assume.”
“No, I died when I was thirty-two and you’re speaking to a ghost.” He rolled his eyes. “Use your head. Of course I’m mutated. I was the first person I tested on.”
It was surreal talking to Dr. Neil. She couldn't understand what he was saying. It was like everything she had learned on the island about him was wrong. She began to think about what he had said earlier. Someone had instructed him to do this. Who? Who wanted the secret to immortality so badly they hired a scientist to figure it out for them?
“No remarks?” He laughed. “Trying to figure me out? Good luck, dear. There are just some things you won’t be able to understand. But you know? I like you. I can tell you're very intelligent. How would you like to make a deal?”
“What’s the deal?” She asked warily.
“You seem very intrigued by my findings. True?”
“Yes.” She reluctantly admitted.
“I assume you were sent on a mission to find this place. Congrats on being the first person in ninety years to actually accomplish that. Here's my proposal: don’t tell anyone I’m alive and don’t tell anyone you’ve found my lab. In return, I’ll show you my research. My successes, my failures. How I accomplished all this.” He extended his hand. “What do you say?”
She knew the wise answer would be no. She couldn’t help how intrigued she was though. Besides, the more information she could gather before bringing him in, the better.
“Deal.”
Over the course of the next couple weeks, Dr. Neil explained all of his research in depth to Jade. It was a lot to take in. First there were the three different rankings of mutations: A, B, and C. Killian was a rank A mutation. This meant he had regained all of his sanity from when he first lost it. It also meant he was unable to go back to the original state of a mutation.
Rank B decides your fate a mutation. They could somewhat control themselves and think rationally, but they still had killing urges every once in a while. From this stage you could advance to rank A or fall down to rank C.
Rank C was what everyone on the island knew about. They were the rogue mutations who were no better than wild beasts. They took pleasure in murdering and playing with their victims.
There were also about thirty-five different mutations. It ranged from cannibalistic mutations (the most common) to time-traveling mutations (the rarest). In fact, there was only one time-traveling mutation. One of the rogue mutations had stolen the serum from Killian’s lab and used it before he had the chance to record his findings. He hasn’t been able to remake the serum since.
Jade learned once a mutation was “killed” it regenerated back in the lab within the next seventy-two hours. Despite their regenerative powers, killing them temporarily was still better than letting them wreak havoc on humanity. When the rogues regenerate back into the lab, Dr. Neil has them locked up so they can’t go back out into the world. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as she originally believed.
She felt a little bad going to the lab every night. She had been neglecting her mission for weeks, but she couldn't stop just yet. She was too invested in what she was learning.
Jade was walking to the lab one night when her phone rang. She was so far into the woods she was surprised she still had service. She pulled out her phone and picked up.
“Hello, this is Jade Skrekk...wait what?...yes, yes, of course. I’ll be right there.” She had to take a moment to process what she was told.
It was a call from the hospital. During the time Jade was on her mission, Michelle had been dispatched to New York to deal with some elemental mutations that were murdering humans. The mission wasn’t very successful and everyone on the team was rushed back for immediate medical assistance.
Jade had to take a moment to process what she just heard because it didn’t register in her brain right away. Michelle was dying in the hospital. She would make it though, right? She had to, she had three daughters waiting for her back home.
Jade immediately turned around and started running as fast as she could to the island’s hospital. She was so anxious, she forgot to breathe and started coughing halfway there, but that didn’t stop her. She rushed through front of the hospital, almost succeeding in knocking down the doors. She rushed to the front desk where Kimiko Hamada looked taken aback on how she had entered the building.
“Oh, Jade.” She said.
“Where is she?” She panted.
“I know I called you because you're her emergency contact, but I don't think you can see her rig-” Ms. Hamada started to say before getting cut off by Jade.
"What room?" She panted.
"321, but like I said-"
Jade ignored her and ran up to the third floor. She burst into the room and saw Michelle lying on a hospital bed, completely unconscious. She looked entirely normal, but that only made Jade more worried. What had the mutations done to her?
“Excuse me, but you can’t be in here right now.” The doctor by Michelle’s bed announced. Jade was so worried, she didn’t even see him when she first came into the room.
“What happened to her? Will you be able to reverse it? She’s the head of the island, please tell me you’re doing everything you can for her!” She started to scream as tears pricked her eyes. It was all so overwhelming she started shaking.
“Miss, calm down. We’re doing everything we can, but there’s not much we can do. We can deal with physical injuries and such, but what’s going on right now is in another plane entirely. Elementals can cut off any air flow into your lungs. Even with the breathing tube, she's having trouble getting enough oxygen.” He started to say, at the moment the heart monitor went flat. “You need to leave.” He said closing the door on her.
Hot tears were running down her face.
Please someone, Odin, Thor, anybody! Don’t let her die.
The next day the news was all over the island. It wasn't just Michelle who had passed yesterday, but her husband Alexander as well. The head of the island was dead. In all of Darkshadow's history they had never lost a leader like this before.
Jade couldn’t bring herself to visit Dr. Neil’s lab after that day. She could barely get out of bed to go anywhere. She knew that death was normal when you were a Champion, but for some reason she had still never thought that it could happen to her best friend. She thought that the two of them would surely live forever together. She was so preoccupied with the Dr.’s research she didn’t even think about it when Michelle and Alexander were dispatched to New York.
Jade had been to countless funerals, but this one felt different. Her head knew they were gone, but she still couldn’t register it with her emotions. She felt like something was missing in her. She felt so empty. She had cried countless times, but she still felt like this was all fake; that tomorrow she would go over to their mansion and laugh with them like she always did. But it was real. She was never going to see them again. She was never going to talk with them again. Why did this hurt so much more than anyone else’s death ever had? She felt like a black abyss had opened up inside her and was eating her alive. Her motivation to do anything was gone.
In their will, Alexander and Michelle had left the seat as head of the island to Jade until their daughter, Reina, was eighteen. Their three daughters, Reina, Laina, and Samantha, would also be left under Jade’s care until they reached the age of eighteen. She agreed to head the island, not because she wanted to or because she thought she would do a good job at it, but because what else was she supposed to do?
Jade was sitting in her new office. She had finally moved out of the dorms and bought a cabin. It was small, but still big enough for the four new residents living there. It didn't feel right moving into the Darkshadow Mansion. She wasn't a Darkshadow. The Darkshadow Mansion would go to Reina when she came of age. Until then it would remain empty.
After being put into the position of head of the island, Jade had a lot of catching up to do. She read through every mission log, sorted through every funeral record, and started to get ready for any new Champions that were to come. She had become so well versed on the Prose Edda and the history of the island, her brain could explode. She even read the journals of the previous Darkshadows, so she could gather how to properly run an island. After reading Alexander’s journals she learned that he was really far off from where he thought Dr. Neil’s lab was. He thought it was somewhere in New England.
To keep up with all of her duties, she hired Cheryl Valentine as her new personal assistant. She was a small woman with the classic golden hair of the Gold family. The Gold’s weren’t an island based family, but that didn’t make them any less popular. They had dozens of well-known Champions in their family (not to mention some of the wealthiest!) The myth goes that Andvari gave them unlimited riches when a Champion had helped him out in the past.
“Cheryl!” She yelled, so that Cheryl could hear her from the other room.
Cheryl came rushing into the room thirty seconds later.
“Cheryl, I’ve decided to make a new decree. No fewer than five people are to go on missions, unless it's a level one recruitment mission. I think everyone will agree with me that this is what’s best for us on the island.”
“I’ll be right on that, Miss.” Cheryl scurried out of the room.
Regarding the children that were left under Jade’s care, Jade had already started to grow close to them throughout the past few weeks. The twins were seven and Samantha. The twins physical traits obviously came from their mother as both of them took on more South Asian traits than they did white. Samantha was similar in that she took on most of the traits of Michelle. Maybe Jade only thought that because she had never met Simon, Michelle’s previous partner, but when she looked at Samantha she could see Michelle’s petite nose and the array of freckles that covered her head to toe.
Looking at them she knew she was going to be able to do this. She could rule an island and raise three children all at the age of twenty-six. Well, actually, when put like that it sounds way too optimistic.
“Cheryl!”
“Yes, Miss?”
“I’m gonna need to hire a few more assistants.”
“On it, Miss.”
She was going to do this and she was going to do it well. That was a promise she made to herself.
Comments (0)
See all