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CATO
Ifollow Talia inside, seeing it through her eyes. Though the lingering hatred and pain from this place flashes through me, I need to tell her, to show her, how awful this place truly is.
Yes, the equipment is top of the line, and yes, it looks amazing from here, but it’s not.
It’s hell.
It’s a place even monsters fear.
“I can still hear the screams, though I got lucky. I was only brought here twice for misbehaving. They hurt a friend of mine, and I reacted…badly. I didn’t have much control back then, and that lack of control over the haze landed me here, but others…others who were angry, who couldn’t control their hatred and fear and got lost in the haze, well…they never came back.”
She looks over at me, and I smile sadly.
“Like Samael. I don’t know what he did, but one day, he was gone, and during my second punishment here, I saw him. He was just a youngling, Tally, just a kid, and the things they did to him… It’s no wonder his mind is fractured. It’s no wonder he is the way he is. Even if I cannot stand idly by as he hurts others, I understand why. It’s why we call him and his people Darklings. It’s why they are the farthest away from humanity…” I shake my head. She doesn’t need to know the true depths of their depravity and madness. I look around once more and then back at her. “This place should be a dream for a scientist like me, but instead, it’s a nightmare.”
“Cato,” she croaks out, coming closer. When she reaches up and cups my face, I close my eyes as I soak in her warmth. I let her presence push back those memories that haunt me. “I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry.”
“I know,” I murmur, covering her hands as I press my head to hers. “You didn’t do this, Talia, but you needed to see. There might be answers here, and if not, you needed to see this to understand.”
I feel her nod, her scent wrapping around me and offering comfort. “Maybe it truly is our species who are the monsters,” she whispers. “I don’t understand how they could have done this or why they did this.”
I open my eyes to see my pain reflected in her eyes, the same kind that lives in me. “Because they could.” It is as simple as that. They did this to us because they could.
No one cared enough to stop them, and they didn’t care what it took or who it hurt as long as they got what they wanted. Our bodies, our rights, were nothing to them. They thought they were better. They thought they were untouchable and therefore could dictate what happened to us and get away with it.
And they did.
They made us the monsters for fighting back, for trying to save our people and keep them safe.
“I hate them,” I tell her, and her eyes fill with tears as she watches me.
“I know,” she whispers.
“It’s not logical, hate doesn’t help—”
“Shh.” She presses her face to mine, holding my gaze. “Whether it’s logical or not, you feel it, and you are allowed to feel it, Cato. If we were solely based on logic, we would be robots. We need emotions to keep us real, to keep us alive, even if those emotions are sometimes unexplainable. Hating the people who not only created you and your kind but then tortured, abused, and used them is not unexplainable. It is obvious and understandable. I hate them for you. I want to burn this fucking place to the ground and then go over the wall and do the same there. I want to scream it from the rooftops so my people finally know the truth. I want there to be riots and chaos, just so I can protect you and the incredible people I’ve met here.”
The determination reflected back in her eyes steals my breath.
“I want to save you all, and I will.” Her voice hardens. “I will save you all from them. They will never get this research, and they will never hurt you again. I promise you, Cato, that no matter what happens, no matter what comes, I will protect you.”
“My beautiful, beautiful Tally,” I murmur, leaning close and kissing her softly. I don’t know what else to say. Whatever words that would come from my mouth would be lacking in regard to the strength of my feelings for my mate. Every mate thinks they got lucky, but me? I have been given the most incredible, smart, kind, beautiful, and perfect mate in the world, and I will always treasure that, always treasure her. I might not be able to fully put into words how much this little human means to me, but I will always show her.
I vow it with my lips pressed to hers.
When I pull back, she smiles at me as I pull away, twining my hand with hers. “Come on, let me show you why I brought you here. This won’t be easy to see, but I think it might help you understand, or at least I hope it will.”
The front of the lab is state of the art, even more so than the lab in the main building. Here, they don’t hide anything or spare any expense, but as we plunge into the waiting hell below, using the once working moving stairs, the truth is spread out below the entire city. Tanks hold new-born monsters, suspended in all states and forms. Some are mutilated or wrong. Behind them are tables where blood still remains, as well as skeletons, since the war started so suddenly.
Cages, or cells as they called them, fill each wall, small enough that we could barely lie down. They are stacked on top of each other, offering no privacy or solitude, just bars and glass. There are hundreds of them. Some stand open, while some remain closed with the dead inside. This place was one of the most guarded, and so it was the last to fall. When they evacuated, many of the guards killed the subjects, and all the monsters were dead…bar Samael, who managed to break out in the chaos. When we arrived, he was ripping his way through humans.
“Oh my god.” Talia covers her mouth, her eyes wide in horror as she gapes at the hell beyond.
“This is where the experiments began. I’m not sure what they were doing down here after they created us, but it was nothing good. The bits and pieces I heard when I was here made it seem like they were splicing our DNA to try to create different species like us. As you can see, it didn’t work, and the things they created were framed like trophies. Other times, they would just cut up our people and test their organs, but they enjoyed it, enjoyed hurting us. Here, Talia, is where it all began. It’s where the first monster was created.”
Standing hand in hand with her, I look out at the birthplace and torture sanctuary of my people. A human and a monster, both free, both supposed to be enemies, coming back to the beginning as lovers.
Looking up at me, she squeezes my hand, lifts it, and kisses the back. “Let’s stop this from ever happening again.” With a determined tilt of her chin, she descends the steps into hell, ready to find the missing piece.
