Lost and unloved: childhood memories - Masterminds #1, Chapter 15
A deal with a Hybrid... Heila lost herself to her earliest memories of losing her parents and finding a new home as she waited for the rest to come to the battle scene and debris that remained.
When Heila was three, four men had been waiting for her at the front door of her house. They were wearing white protective suits that covered their entire bodies including their faces.
“Mummy? Daddy?”
She couldn’t hear a single soul in the house. Where were her parents?
The men didn’t move. They were waiting for her to come closer. But she didn’t want to. She wanted to run away… but she didn’t want to leave mummy and daddy behind. What had happened to them? Had they left suddenly the house without her noticing? Had they gone grocery shopping?
The men were speaking but she couldn’t remember what they had said. But she had this gnawing feeling in her chest that she couldn’t approach them. Yet there was nowhere she could run.
The men came closer, walking in perfect sync, one foot after the other. She wanted to turn away but she was too small, too young. They were grown-ups and they were fast, and before she knew it, two of them had grabbed her by her arms.
She cried out but no one came to help her.
She had to find her parents.
But no one was coming for her.
She realised she had to break free by herself. So she cried out even louder.
The men weren’t alarmed at all. They seemed amused. They dragged her on the floor, tightening their grip, and threw her into a sort of fishnet…
She could only cry out louder. Her fingers interlaced with the net, which she tried to tear away.
But it was too late. She was trapped.
This time her cry turned into a piercing shriek. Her throat was burning and her chest was heaving. Something inside her suddenly yearned to be unleashed.
The next thing she knew was that her house was on fire. The men had left. She was lying on the floor, her limbs tangled with the fishnet.
Then, she fell unconscious, exhausted.
When she woke up, she didn’t recognise the house in front of her. She didn’t recognise the suburban neighbourhood with such vast areas of empty land and greenery, or the tall overarching trees on both sides of the huge three-storey house.
That house… would become her new home. With a foster family.
Later on, she learnt that this was how The Oracles held those whom They wanted to keep a watch on without throwing them in a cell. This was, in truth, Their version of imprisonment. She also found out that her biological parents had died in the fire that had destroyed her house.
But back then, at that very moment, as she stood in front of what seemed to be a mansion, she could only stare in awe. And when the door opened in front of her, she was welcomed by the warm and beautiful face of a tall dark-haired woman, smiling at her.
“Hello there, we’ve been waiting for you.”
She introduced herself as Caroline Lewis, the Mastermind of Dreams and her new adoptive mother. She had this sweet mellow voice, like someone who would be perfect for singing lullabies. She walked barefoot on the grass as she walked towards her. She then knelt down in front of her so she could look directly into her eyes, meeting her right at her level.
“Welcome home, Heila.”
Caroline’s eyes were of a deep turquoise colour which stood out against her long black hair. Heila clearly remembered how her light and silky green dress clung to her waist while it flowed and swayed against her thighs thanks to the cool summer breeze.
Against all odds, that day was a sunny and beautiful day.
Caroline reached for her hand.
“Come with me. Let’s meet your new family. Your brothers are excited to meet you.”
In an instant, Heila had forgotten all about her worries. Her eyes shone with excitement. She wanted nothing more but to follow this beautiful lady into this beautiful house, on this beautiful day.
And what about her real family? They were already fading away, slowly vanishing into the distant past.
What would she have remembered anyway? She was only three after all.
“Heila! Are you alright?”
Heila snapped back into reality as Jake’s voice echoed into the dark underground chamber. Upon hearing their footsteps behind her, she turned around to face them.
Judy. She had both hands around the grip of her gun, her foot stance on guard, ready to attack at any moment.
Dany. As usual, he was floating above the ground, his eyes shining with a bright purple glow.
Ray. He was holding a golden sphere of light, their one source of light that had helped them navigate the tunnels.
Jake. He sprinted towards her like a gust of wind and held her by the shoulders, examining her.
“Are you hurt? What happened? We heard an explosion coming from here and—”
“It’s over. The Rogue has been caught.”
She glanced at the tower of debris behind her. They followed her gaze and saw it.
Judy walked over to the prism that stood in the middle of the room. It was a type of cage, shaped like a pyramid, that Writers were taught to summon whenever they had to capture someone for The Oracles. The glass-like walls of the prism glowed just enough for its prisoner to be visible to outsiders.
There she lay, the Hybrid they had all been looking for. Aria was lying on her back, unconscious, her bright red hair contrasting the dirty dark floor.
“She doesn’t look injured,” Judy said. “Thought she would have struggled a lot more.”
“It was more a battle of the pen than a battle of swords.”
Judy nodded and placed her palm on the surface of the prism. Alphabets and numbers appeared. She keyed in the password that would send the prisoner away to The Oracles automatically.
Into the darkest of dungeons.
The worst anyone could possibly imagine. Heila knew because she had been there.
Not as a prisoner, but as an executor.
She tightened her grip on her sword which she had still been holding this whole time. In a flash, the sword turned into a pen.
The fight was over. The case was finally closed. Mission accomplished.
But only she knew that the war had just begun.
After the prism had disappeared, Judy patted her on the back.
“Good job, Heila. Let’s head home now.”
D. K. Waye