A black tide of night pressed down, glowering with a full-featured scowl, and set the poor robin a-quiver. The SUV eased to a halt at the gate, rain tapping insistently on its metal shell, each droplet a faint, dying protest that echoed through the cabin. Two guards moved toward us, hands raised, weapons slung but ready.
"Ms Graye. ID, please."
I slid the window down, holding my ID out and letting the cold rain slap against my wrists. "Rena Graye. Here to inspect containment protocols." the guard scanned my card against the reader. A sharp beep, green light.
They nodded in respect, moving out of the way as I rolled my window back up. The gates responded, sliding open with a sharp, mechanical hiss. I was driven beyond them, the facility sprawled like a wounded fortress. I stepped out of the vehicle, my boots crunching under wet gravel as my aide fell in beside me with an umbrella. Every shadow seemed to twitch, every camera swiveled a silent accusation. The lab looked fragile, unprepared and defenseless.
A man in a crisp lab coat waited near the entrance, clipboard in hand, shivering in the cold nervously. Beside him stood another, clad in tactical black, his posture rigid.
"Ms Graye," the researcher said, stepping forward, voice tight with controlled urgency. "I'm Dr. Altazer, head of research. And this is Captain Joe, head of security."
"I'm sure you have already been informed of why I have been sent to your facility," I said, moving past them and towards the automated sliding doors. They followed behind me hastily.
"We anticipated your visit," Joe said, voice low. Dr. Altazer's eyes flicked to him with a nervous look.
""Explain to me exactly how this breach occurred under your watch." My eyes fell on Dr Altazer who gulped.
"The escapees are from Section E18- the worst of the batch- extremely clever," Dr. Altazer said, cutting through my glare in an attempt to save himself. He took my silence as a sign to continue as we walked along the corridor. "There are 13 to be exact. They're at the very heart of our research. Their cunning nature is... almost demonic. Along with their parasitic abilities to live within any host of their liking simply out of choice rather than survival, their bodies are unlike anything we've seen- contorted, adaptive, and extremely resilient, being able to live outside a host for what we think to be decades. They hunt, coordinate, and retaliate with a precision that makes them lethal."
"Yet your team still failed to maintain the proper containment protocols, allowing for such cunning creatures to escape." I replied bitterly.
I stepped into the lab, boots clicking against the metal floor. The fluorescent lights flickered above, and the faint smell of burnt circuitry and antiseptic had filled the room. Researchers huddled around tablets and consoles, faces pale, eyes darting nervously as I approached.
Captain Joe tried to cut through my observant silence. "Ms Graye, we-"
I raised a hand, cutting him off. "Do you have any idea how close you all came to being exterminated?"
I was met with nervous silence, guilt etched on their faces. I let my gaze sweep the room one more time. "I want a full review-."
A shrill alarm cut through my orders.Red lights strobed across the walls, bouncing off cracked floors and glass panels, throwing everything into jagged, disorienting patterns. Researchers panicked, scattering like insects, while the high-pitched wail of sirens mingled with the metallic clatter of containment units swinging open. A mechanical voice blared through the speakers: "CONTAINMENT BREACH! ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!"
Sparks danced across the walls, and a low, otherworldly screech echoed through the hallways. My pulse hit a higher gear.
"They're back for revenge." Dr Altazer gasped, grabbing papers on the table and pushing them into a brief case.
"Secure the perimeter!" I barked over the din, my voice carrying authority without hesitation. "Check all exits! Contain them if you can!"
Dr. Altazer, eyes wide and hands trembling, stepped closer. "Colonel... we need to leave through the back with my work," he stammered.
I spared him a glance. "Not until this is under control."
"PLEASE!" he protested desperately. "This is years of key research." I looked at his pathetic look of self concern and sighed, glancing at Captain Joe. He met my eyes, reassuring me he had things under control as he yelled coordinated commands to the security teams.
I bolted for the outside, Dr Altazer and my two guards behind me. The storm tore across the compound, rain stinging my face, lightning cutting the night into brief, violent snapshots of the perimeter. I ducked behind a crumpled car, slipping over wet concrete, and aimed for my parked SUV, hoping to use it as cover.
Two creatures rose from the shadows. Seven feet tall, shoulders hunched, chest broad and muscular but lean, limbs elongated with unnerving dexterity. Their heads were narrow, angular, with a smooth, domed skull tapering into a snout filled with needle-like teeth that gleamed in the lightning. The SUV rolled violently as one of their claws collided with it, flipping it over like paper.
I ducked behind a pillar just as my aide slid a compact, high-caliber assault pistol into my hand- customized with a short barrel and reinforced rounds.
"Dr. Altazer!" I shouted, shoving him to the side. His eyes were wide, panic written across his features.
"We can take my car!" he whimpered, but that was the least of my worries.
One lunged at me with terrifying speed; circling towards my position, claws scraping across wet concrete. I leveled the pistol, breathing even, muscles coiled. It took the impact square in the chest, recoiling but still coming, teeth bared. I shifted, rolling behind a car, my aide covering the opposite flank.
A flash of lightning illuminated their frames: muscular limbs ending in hooked claws, elongated torsos that flexed unnaturally as they twisted toward us, jaws snapping in anticipation. I pressed a shot to one's exposed side as it let out a shriek. The second charged at me. I sidestepped, slamming the gun's butt into its temple as I fired a rapid burst. It faltered, staggering back, giving my aide a clear line of fire. We moved as a single unit but we were no match for the two now furious creatures.
I stepped back, sliding a glance at my aide. They were out of ammo. So was I. I let out a quiet sigh and reached for the object at my side- a short, unassuming pole. With a sharp click, it expanded, unfurling into a massive sword. The blade was monstrous, jagged along its edges, glowing along the rims with a blue heat that radiated outward, faint steam curling where it met the icy rain. The stormlight reflected off it, painting arcs of electricity across the slick pavement.
I held the sword with a steady grip. Rain plastered my hair to my face, dripping from my uniform, but I was untouchable. I allowed them to charge, slicing through the first with a single strike that cut deep into the thick, muscular hide. The second swung at me; I pivoted, feeling the force knock me sideways, panting as I rolled and slammed my feet against concrete to regain stance. The sword stayed in my hand, still humming with blue heat.
My aide reacted instantly, knives flashing in their hands as they charged, but the fight was brutal. The creature was relentless. Steel and flesh met, screeches piercing the storm. In a few savage exchanges, both my guards fell, their bodies crumpling in grotesque arcs.
I surged forward in an attempt to save them, driving into the still standing creature, striking with every ounce of force. It staggered, and my blade flung from my grip in a glitter of blue light. I fell hard, rain stinging, chest heaving, but the creature wasn't finished. It lurched toward me, claws extended.
The world fractured. Rain still fell, yet each droplet seemed to hesitate midair, hovering like frozen shards of glass. Each second stretched, expanding and contracting, as though time had been poured into elastic. I could see the fine spray of water bouncing off the pavement, feel the momentum of each droplet against my skin as though the storm itself had slowed to watch.
The creature paused mid-lunge. Muscles flexed, claws extended, yet each movement was drawn out, deliberate, terrifyingly clear. I saw the tension in its sinews like wires straining under weight, every twitch of its tail-like appendages a separate event.
Suddenly, cutting through the slows of my death, a figure leapt in front of me, and the world muted. Rain still hammered down, yet it clung to nothing, bouncing harmlessly off her body. Tentacles erupted from her back in a perfect fan, coiling and spreading like a peacock's tail- eight long, sinuous appendages, gleaming wetly in the storm, each tapering to fine, whip-like tips. She stood tall, human in frame but impossibly alien. Her hair, long and dark, refused the rain entirely, dry and floating around her head as though in another atmosphere.
A deafening shriek tore from her throat, asserting dominance. The remaining creature roared back, unwilling to yield. The trees rustled and three others emerged, almost as if they had been called to. She made no further sound, instead, her tentacles whipped outward, cutting arcs through the sheets of rain as she whipped at them.
Four against one. She shifted effortlessly, each tentacle slamming into a target, deflecting blows, crushing limbs. Her form blurred in motion- human grace wrapped around alien ferocity.
Frustration, almost palpable, left her. She shrieked again, this time a roar, golden light exploding from the patterns of her tentacles, blinding the aliens in a radiance that turned rain to sparks. The four recoiled, shrieking in submission, and she lifted off the ground, levitating in the storm. They hesitated before retreating back into the trees.
Through the cascading rain and the blinding glow, I squinted and caught sight of her face. The tentacles still fanned outward, partially obscuring her, but as they shifted, the features emerged: human and alien in perfect symbiosis, eyes sharp, hair dark, aura impossible to ignore. However, I was all too familiar with her beauty, my heart dropping as her gaze fell onto me.
"Amaya?" The name left me like a fracture, sharp and unsteady.
My body reacted before my mind could catch up, blood rushing cold, muscles taut, eyes refusing to look away. She was supposed to be dead- buried in memory, mourned in silence, her absence a weight I had forced myself to carry. Yet here she was, alive. The woman I had once held was there in every line, every curve I had memorised in another life- but framed by something unearthly, as though death itself had remade her into a stranger.
Her expression softened but then, with a controlled flick, she dove forward, leaving me in the rain.