Chương 120: 4.16 - Amber Deen

Amber Deen"Deen... you?"

"Yes, Erind. It's me," she replied. She was already used to being referred to as 'Deen' instead of her first name, 'Amber.' At first, it was only Erind calling her that. Now, it was their entire Adumbrae-fighting group. She was starting to prefer being called 'Deen'.

"Hello? Hello?"

"Why aren't you replying to my texts?" Deen asked Erind over the phone with a hint of chuckle to show it was just a light-hearted question; she knew she was becoming unreasonably intrusive as of late. I should've said something else.

"You're not in any trouble at the mall, aren't you?" she added, making an opening for her friend to make a 'mom joke'; it could sort of excuse her behavior. But Erind didn't. She said, "Deen? Ah…can't hear... very well…signal."

"Hello, Erind?" A spike of static made Deen wince. She wanted to tell Erind to go out and find better reception, but that was being incredibly bossy.

"Are you still at the mall?" Where was she that the connection was this bad?

"What did you—mall? Yeah, I'm…mall. Waiting…glasses."

"You're done with having your eyes checked, and now you're waiting for your glasses? How long—" Deen bit her lip.

"Just tell me later when you're done, okay? We'll have—we can have dinner together if you want…just a suggestion."

"Yeah, I'll…back by dinner," Erind replied, misunderstanding her.

"Are…. class now?" Deen stared at the sea of grass outside her car window—the sprawling Green Meadows Park.

"I have class right now," she said.

"I just stepped out to check on you because I was worried." A couple minutes of driving along the street bordering the park and she'd be at the entrance of Poblacion Verde Hills; three or four more minutes after that and she'd be home.

"We can…later…listen…class." Erind's voice was becoming less clear, the connection very choppy.

"Talk to you later then. Take care." After the beep of the ended call, Deen sighed. She reached over her left shoulder and massaged her back, around her left shoulder blade. When she was stressed, she had a bad habit of unconsciously raising her shoulders, resulting in gnawing pain as the tight muscles contracted. It rarely happened, but it was distractingly uncomfortable when it did.

Accepting the artificial Core and entering the world of Adumbrae and Corebrings resulted in more stressful encounters—a very generous description of the life-and-death experiences she had—and regularly too. But she expected she would no longer experience this pain even if she had become more tensed since then. Surely her regenerative powers would take care of it? Apparently, she was wrong. Or maybe her powers did heal the tense muscles, and this was this something like phantom pain? Can it be psychological?

In any case, she found she was less tense, hence less suffering, when Erind was around.

"We just have to protect Erind and keep her close, right Gabe?" Deen said to her Guardian Angel. The name just popped in her head one day. Gabriel was a biblical angel, and 'Gabe' was like a cute nickname version of it.

"We have to protect her no matter what… especially now that she…" She hit the steering wheel in frustration, accidentally honking the horn, surprising herself. She also surprised a couple of kids skating on the sidewalk. One of them stumbled and crashed into the other. Slowing the car, she called out to them, "Sorry! Are you okay?" The kids waved at her to show there was no problem. She continued watching them, looking back as she drove on to make sure they were alright.

Gabe floated into view and stared straight into her eyes. It was very rare it opened its eyes, even rarer it would meet her gaze. Its eyes were orbs of endless darkness. If she stared long enough, she knew she'd notice sprinkles of light, which would become a fountain of stars streaming forth from the darkness, as if endless galaxies were trapped inside them… the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"Hello, is something—?" [Focus on driving.]"Oops, road safety first." Deen didn't need the power of foresight to know she was asking for an accident by not keeping her eyes on the road. Sure enough, a few yards ahead, a man walking several dogs inadvertently let go of one of the leashes. An excited black Labrador streaked across the road, right in front of her car, but she was able to brake in time.

"Phew. Thanks, Gabe," she said, observing her Guardian Angel with affection. She could've sworn it had grown bigger since it first manifested, with minute cracks branching across the surface of its egg-shaped body. Perhaps it was molting its hard ivory-colored exterior? The wings it held close to its body had more feathers now, and the feathers themselves grew about an inch longer. She couldn't explain it, she just knew Gabe would unfurl those blindingly white wings someday. Deen had an urge to touch them.

I bet they are very fluffy. But she held back, remembering what happened the two times she did. To distract herself, she looked right through Gabe—through not past; its body was mind-bogglingly transparent and not at the same time—at the park. She didn't forget to keep glancing on the road. There were curiously a lot of people at Green Meadows Park today. Joggers, children playing, people walking their pets, families having a picnic.

If she had to guess, these were people avoiding the center of the commotion at downtown while trying to find a way to have a 'normal' atmosphere despite the madness enveloping their city. Getting a dog would be nice. I'll ask Erind if she likes animals.

"Hello?" Deen poked her head through the doorway. Everything was silent. She glanced at Gabe—it had become her habit every time she was about to enter a place. Her Guardian Angel just rotated in the air, its eyes tightly shut.

"Sis, are you home?" she called, walking in with her shoulders dropped. Even if her sister was around, she wouldn't answer because she'd be in her room wearing headphones blaring classical violin music. Deen checked the wall clock by the entrance. Her sister wasn't usually home this early anyway… or at all. The clock also told her she had plenty of time before her next class. Deen did go to university like she told Erind she would.

However, her prior class was cancelled last minute because their professor was injured on his way to work. Many conflicting stories on what happened, the most believable was a roving gang of religious fanatics blocking the traffic, supposedly checking passing cars if there were any Adumbrae inside, decided her professor wasn't human—yes, this was the most believable. Given what was happening lately, she wouldn't be surprised if the more far-fetched stories were also true. This book is hosted on another platform.

Read the official version and support the author's work. So, there she was, hanging out with the few of her classmates who were present, having a relaxed time socializing even though her usual circle of friends didn't come to school, when the dean ordered all classes be moved online until further notice. They had no choice but to go home, ruining her plans of having a normal time with normal… humans. I'm not normal, she reminded herself. And I'm not human anymore.

But that didn't mean she didn't wanted to feel normal sometimes... just like the people at Green Meadows Park. Speaking of normal … Deen ran upstairs, checking the rooms just to make sure no one else was here, before entering the closet in her own room. She had the primary bedroom—her sister yielded it to her since she was barely home—with a huge walk-in closet. One of the cabinets had a false wall hiding a safe the size of a mini fridge behind it. Her sister didn't know… or didn't care…

about this safe, and Deen was the only one who knew the security code. She had no use for it because she had no jewelry to put inside; her mother was an avid collector of luxury accessories, but Deen and her sister didn't share that passion. Right now, the only thing inside of the safe was a sealed plastic bag containing dirty clothes—Erind's clothes the night she escaped her condo.

"Oh my god," Deen said as she opened the plastic bag. It was absolutely foul, worse than gym clothes soaked in sweat cooped up in a bag for days. She had dried them under the sun before storing to lessen the smell, but it still reeked.

"Gross," she muttered.

"And sorry, Erind. I know you're not smelly." She held her breath as she examined the clothes. The shirt and shorts were dark blue, making it hard to know which of the many dried splotches were blood. Still, Deen tried her best to examine each one of them. Most were likely bodily fluids of monsters, causing the bad odor even if the clothes were already dry. There were many tears on the fabric—not just small holes, some were a few inches long—which meant Erind was wounded that night…

which also meant some of the dark patches were her dried blood. If she had these wounds on the parts of her body covered with clothes, she'd likely have wounds on her bare arms and legs too. It's all logical. The problem was Erind didn't have any wounds. None at all, not even a small bruise. Sensing something didn't add up, Deen hid Erind's dirty clothes and told her she threw them away. There was no way to explain the tears on the clothes while her best friend's skin remained unblemished.

I don't think Erind was the type to wear fashionably ripped clothes. Deen stowed them inside the safe again, and filled the entire closet with clouds of perfume to get rid of the smell. She also opened all the doors and windows of the room to help air out the foul odor. She fetched her laptop, not for her online class, but to search for the optical shop Erind went to. She found it was on the second floor of the mall, so Erind shouldn't have any problems with reception unless the phone itself was defective.

I don't think it was, I bought it just four months ago. And did Erind really need glasses? She acted like she did, squinting at small objects, printing out case notes in larger fonts, asking Deen for help reading small text. However, Deen got a glimpse of her at the police station, effortlessly filling out the forms. Was her eyesight healing too, just like the rest of her body?

"This can't be happening," Deen said, clenching her fists. All those weird conversations between Erind and Johann, their reactions, everything made sense now. There was no need for Erind to drink the Suppressor if she was a normal human. Johann didn't have to do anything if she was a normal human. But she's not human … that was the only explanation. When this suspicion first crawled in her mind, Deen's initial reaction was to assume Erind accepted an artificial Core.

She was hurt her best friend didn't tell her; she already promised she would protect her—there was no need for her to surrender her humanity too. But as she thought about it over the past couple of days, she realized Erind wouldn't just change her mind and accept the artificial Core. If she did, Dario would take that into account in their planning. And Erind would've told her! She would ask for her support as she grappled with the changes in her body. This was something else…

something happened to Erind that night the 2Ms attacked that only she, Myra, and Johann knew. She is becoming an Adumbrae… The 2Ms did something to Erind. And Deen wasn't there to protect her best friend. Deen wanted to scream in anger, but she instead gnashed her teeth. She dug her nails into her palms, cutting into her skin. Blood ran down the side of her hands.

"Oh, no," she whispered, extending her arms so the blood wouldn't fall on her shirt. She rushed to the bathroom sink to wash it off. The cuts on her hands rapidly healed, probably the same thing that happened to Erind's wounds. Poor Erind... Deen had a theory on what happened: Myra and Johann rescued Erind from the men of the 2Ms, but they were too late to prevent whatever experiment was done to her. She ended up becoming an Adumbrae.

The three of them decided to keep it a secret from the rest of the group because they were fighting the Adumbrae. Adumbrae were evil. Adumbrae were the enemy. The people who let themselves get taken over by Adumbrae were traitors to humanity. Everybody was taught this way when they were children. Erind will never confess to me. And part of that was because of her actions. Deen recalled she made a grand speech about doing her part in the fight against the Adumbrae.

Her best friend would understandably be ashamed to reveal she became an Adumbrae even if it wasn't her fault. What could she do to make Erind reveal the truth? She didn't want to just confront Erind; it may drive her best friend away. Maybe she could approach Myra and Johann? Would they tell her, or hide it from her? Erind was probably with them right now. It made Deen feel a pang of jealousy.

"I sure wish I'm wrong about this," she murmured as she walked to the guest room Erind was staying in. Right to privacy and all that, I know what I'm doing is wrong, she admitted to herself as she combed through Erind's belongings. After each drawer she rummaged, she'd arrange everything back to their respective places. It didn't take her long because Erind didn't have much other than the clothes they bought yesterday, and most of them were still in the paper bags.

I'll help her fix her cabinet later, Deen decided, smiling at the thought of doing something normal. She didn't find anything interesting besides the certificates of Erind from the testing. These should prove Erind was normal… that was what anyone would think. But Deen had an inkling that Johann tampered with the tests somehow.

"A bookmark?" she said, finding a piece of cardboard amongst the papers. It couldn't be Erind's. It might be bookmark of the owner of this house. The library downstairs had many books, and this could've been left by the owner or the previous lessees inside one of them. But Erind didn't have any books in this room. Deen took a picture of the bookmark, placed it back with Erind's certificates, and left the room.

She still had thirty minutes until her next class so she spent it browsing the internet for clues about the bookmark. Searching for the symbol on it yielded no results. Or rather it had a lot of related images, but no exact match. The symbols that came up were connected to Neo-Core Christianity. Unlike mainstream Christianity, the sects categorized under it did believe in the books of Enoch—most only on the first book—so it seemed to be a good lead.

"I'm looking for a church, organization, some kind of group," Deen said, "that believes in all the three books of Enoch as scripture, and uses this symbol." She zoomed in on the picture she took of the bookmark. There was a handwritten notation that seemed to cite a fourth book of Enoch. More browsing confirmed there were only three books. The number '4' was too different from '1', '2', or '3' for it to be just a handwriting mistake.

She didn't give up on her search, continuing during her International Environmental Law elective class. She had been looking forward to the topic they were discussing today—environmental laws for areas previously ravaged by Purple Blooms—but she was so engrossed in learning more about the bookmark that she lowered the volume of her professor's lecture. Her efforts did pay off as she came upon a twenty-three-year-old news article.

It was just a screenshot saved in the blog of a guy who collected odd news articles, so she couldn't verify its authenticity; the source site was no longer up, and the news company shut down more than a decade ago. The piece was about a police raid on the headquarters of a civil rights activist group that was declared illegal because they lobbied for limited rights for Adumbrae who weren't violent.

Among the items retrieved in the raid was a Bible that included several unusual books, including the mysterious fourth book of Enoch.

"That's it?" Deen said.

"No other details?" She stared at the picture of the bookmark again. Where did Erind get this? Were Adumbrae trying to approach Erind and make her join them? If so... I'll kill them.