Chapter 396: 2-2

The screen is stuck on that last still of him, the innocence on his face, betray what we just saw happening. My question brings Chelsea back to me, she inhales sharply, “How – what – I don’t understand?” she stammers along, “that – he – Kai play that again,” she commands leaving my lap and going to stand right in front of the video. “Play it slowly.” “The boy is one of the ten,” Chelsea taps the screen where we see that he is one of the ten, before he runs to the blind spot, before the mist is in the air, and clears. “This video was created and modified on Friday, October 3rd 2014,” Kai announces, “oh,” Remy gasps her head shaking from side to side and her eyes are glassy as she stares blindly. “Are there any markers that can give us a time reference Kai?” I ask despite seeing that all light in this room is synthetic. “Excuse me,” Remy stands places her laptop on the empty chair fleeing from the room, “I am unable to find any markers Gabriel,” Kai states. “Can we get stills of their faces?” Chelsea asks me distracted. “What is the mist? I mean it’s not harmful it’s not burning them, or putting them to sleep…” she turns to face me her cheeks red, her eyes eerily void. “Gabriel…” she whispers her voice shaking and that emptiness is replaced by something I didn’t get to see very often on Chelsea, fear. Going to her immediately, I pull her against me, feeling her rapidly beating heart against my chest, “What if we – what if I can’t stop them?” she utters against my neck. “We have no idea what we’re dealing with here… I mean this mist? This little boy he was one of the kids crying Gabriel, he was pounding on the wall like the others, and then bam… he was – that – this thing and he killed the other nine children… the video was only eight minutes long, and – and three of that was the mist that was released, and the other-” her voice escalated getting higher and higher as she panic. “That – it wasn’t a Wolf either, I mean it was like what I am when I half shift, it wasn’t a wolf-” Pulling her away from me, I went grab her face, “Chelsea relax you aren’t going to fight them tomorrow…” I said but it was like those were the wrong words, they didn’t have the effect that I wanted, she wasn’t calmed her eyes flashed black. “Exactly! This was made on October 3rd of just last year; this is something that’s outside of what I can do. They can’t make shifters but they made that one – how is this even possible?” she demanded, shouting, her eyes hollowed and I realized she wasn’t speaking to me. Before I could remove my hands from her face, we were no longer in my office, instead everything had faded away and we were in a bright white room, and standing before us was a woman, and by her side, a man, I pulled my hands from Chelsea, dropping them to my sides. I turned to face them; my eyes wide, where the hell are we? The Hereafter, Max thought as the woman spoke in a deeper, calm voice, “You are in the Hereafter, Gabriel my child-” “Who cares where he is!” Chelsea shouted, even the man was taken a back, “Did you – do you have an idea what I just witnessed? The Elders – nine children slaughtered – by. A. Child!” Chelsea stressed, leaning forward. “They released something a gas or mist or whatever, and he just-” Chelsea stopped speaking, cutting herself off. I reached for her hand, ignoring the two people in the white space, “Relax… I know – I know you don’t want to hear that,” I said quickly when she was turning red, her mouth opening, “It took me nearly four years to come up with the plan I had for my father, for stepping away from the bullshit that surrounded him, its been two months since we go to the island, since you’ve really started coming into your own, it won’t happen right away but we will get there… we will get the Elders,” I said strongly knowing we would be able to succeed. “Gabriel…” she shook her head, her face a blur, “I’m policing ungrateful, selfish people on an island, when the Elders are having children massacre children.” She turned to the man, Jason, his eyes wide, “Where did you find these people? I mean really dad?” her face pleading. “They are so – one tried to kill his own brother!” Chelsea spat, while I stood next to her observing the woman, “I’m dealing with children who thought that they could just ignore that they had mates, just – because they thought they wouldn’t get mates and didn’t want to wait for them… those are the people I have,” Chelsea’s eyes welled, her emotions overwhelming. “What even is that – that child – the animal he turned into?” she said swallowing for a moment, “We have no way – idea – even of what the Elders were doing or engaging in Chelsea, they’ve developed ways to block their activities from us, as I’ve told you before. What you just witnessed, we just saw for the first time ourselves… we are unaware-” The woman continued speaking but all I could think was the marks I saw on the child. They were the same ones I had seen on Kieran, Liam and Mack, Liam escaped much earlier and from another facility than them but I had seen nonetheless. Was this – did they do this often? The mist and the boy… was he this animal all the time? Did the mist – was it what brought him to change? My mind was racing with all the possibilities when it came to the video, especially the boys reaction when he went back to being fully human, the blood on his hands the look on his face, he wasn’t aware… he was in a trance? I tried to place his face into different scenarios – place that innocence on the men I’ve killed, men that have had their first kill, none fitting. Shaking my head, I tuned in only to see three eyes gazing at me, “Sorry, I – they can’t change shifters anymore, but I need to finish working on that encrypted file-” I just closed my mouth. “Please share your thoughts,” I lifted a brow in question, “because everyone here can’t read my mind?” “Well I can’t,” Jason said. “They can’t change shifters… the mist or cloud we saw, that is – the way they create what they want?” my thoughts are still jumbled. “If – they knew that eventually they wouldn’t be able to change humans into shifters… right?” I looked at the woman. Her eyes gave nothing away, “Ok so if I’m them… I can’t change humans and there’s a chance that the shifters that already exist are going to side with the new people sent to be in charge… they’ve built enemies… ones that if Chelsea is revealed will feel safe and change ‘sides’ so to speak,” I start pacing. “So I try to find a way to change humans...” I open my mouth, closing it again, “I don’t – I kidnap children – shifter children – because I want to see what the gene is… I make them shift early and study that change and try to recreate it. I don’t take adult shifters because they’re already changed. I need to study the change-” I see everyone in front of me, but at the same time, everything fades away, as my mind tries to put a plan of action together but I’m missing too much. “It was fast, almost instantly from the moment the mist came down to when the child changed… seconds… he – those others were down within a minute-” again I’m hitting a block. Chelsea reaches for my hand, and my thoughts calm, sighing I exhale heavily, “Sorry,” I apologize to the three of them, but my eyes are focused on Chelsea. “Child,” the woman starts, “You and your mate, you will figure this out, when you do, you should know that you have help in us,” Chelsea looks at her dubiously but nods. Jason eyes me, “You’ve grown well,” he says, stunning me, “I saw you when you were a small child once, didn’t know Chelsea would be your mate,” at that I smile down at her, “You saved her,” I told him once I force myself to look away from Chelsea. When all my thoughts calmed, “I late on this but how am I here?” I glanced between Chelsea and the Mother. The Mother threw her head back in laughter, “Chelsea can bring people here… she is able to come because of your completed bond,” Jason said stiffly, I nodded, antsy. I needed to get back and finish decrypting the files I had…