Chapter 5: Expendable
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
Prescott-dormitories
"Mmh…Max?" Chloe groaned as she slowly woke up from her tight sleep, already feeling that her girlfriend's warmth was missing. Slowly, she opened her eyes and let her gaze wander to the side of her bed where Max was supposed to lie, but it was empty. With another moan the bluenette sat up. Her chest was still bare and she wore the same clothes than the night before.
"Max?" she now spoke a bit louder, only to recognize that her girlfriend wasn't there.
'Where is she?' the punk-girl thought, 'Did she leave? Or is she just getting us some breakfast?'
Out of a sudden, the door opened, but before Max, who was only wrapped in Chloe's pirate towel, entered, she yelled at someone in the hall.
"You know what, Taylor? Fuck you! Fuck! You! You stupid cunt!" The brunette girl flipped Taylor the bird, and closed the door with a loud bang. "Ugh, I hate this stupid bitch!" she ranted, walking up and down in fury, "This fucking cunt makes me responsible that the Vortex Party has been canceled, because Vicky was responsible for the organization, but left Blackwell and now I'm supposed to apologize to these fuckers. Can you believe this shit?"
To Max's surprise, she's taken into a tight embrace by Chloe, who instantly pressed her lips on the smaller girl's ones. The bluenette broke the kiss and brushed over her girlfriend's cheek with a wry smile. "A good morning to you too, babe!"
"G-good morning." Max whispered, still entirely stunned as Chloe took a few steps back and gazed at her.
"Wow, my towel hella suites you!"
"Oh…y-yeah…sorry, but I needed a shower and I had no towel…"
"It's fine, Max," Chloe interrupted her with a smile, "As long as I get it back."
"Yeah…sure…" Still a bit absent and lost in thoughts, Max just slipped the towel from her body and reached it to Chloe, whose jaw dropped in an instant. Now realizing that she stood naked in front of her girlfriend, Max gasped and turned around. "Oh my dog, sorry…I-I'm sorry…I…just…ugh!"
The small girl's head turned deep-red and her heart and breathing increased, but it almost stopped as she felt Chloe's soft hands on her stomach as well as her bare chest on her back.
"Say, Maxi," she cooed into her ear, "You wanna continue what we started last night?" Her fingers brushed over the pale skin of her belly and went higher, softly caressing her small breasts.
"Oh Chloe…mmh…!" she moaned softly, turned around and kissed her girlfriend intensively.
Both were already moving towards the bed, while Chloe tried to get rid of her jeans, as someone knocked. At first, the two lovers tried to ignore it, but as Dana's voice chimed through the door, Max just broke the kiss and sighed.
"Max, Chloe, you in there? Open up!"
"Sorry!" Max whispered softly, giving the bluenette another kiss.
"Not your fault. Here," Chloe replied with a wry smile and handed the brunette a wide shirt, "Take my shirt."
Max put on the shirt, which covered every important part, and opened the door. "Hi Dana, 'sup?"
Seeing Max in this oversized shirt; clearly naked under it; and Chloe in the background, just wearing her panties, Dana's eyes widened and it took her some time and an agitated glare by Max to eventually snap out of it. "Uh…Am I disturbing?"
"No," sighed Max cynically, rolling with eyes.
"Yes!" it chimed from behind her as Chloe closed in and flung her arm around Max's shoulder. "Hope it's hella important, 'cause I hate unfinished bidness!"
"Yeah…right…uhm…" stammered Dana Ward as her eyes fixed on Chloe's bare chest. But with a shake of her head, she was finally able to muster her countenance. "Have you two seen Rachel? She's neither in her room nor answering my calls."
Recalling Rachel's and Brooke's betrayal last night, Max got angry again. "Have you already tried Brooke's room? I bet these two are fucking each others brain out right now while I and Chloe have to hold back again, thanks to you! And yes, Stella, I and Chloe wanted to have sex and I know that you're calling your vibrator Mr. Big, now fuck off!" she yelled at a small, slender girl with dark hair, as she was looking at her with an arched eyebrow. If Chloe hadn't pulled Max closer and started to speak, the brunette would've raged some more, but her girlfriend's presence luckily calmed her down.
"Listen, Dana, to make things short: no, we don't know where Rachel is. And we hella don't care. Anything else? No? See ya!" she said rapidly and slammed the door shut before Dana could retort anything. "Dude, I said it once and I'm saying it again: You need to get rid of that job!"
"I know," Max sighed and sat down on the bed, "Sorry for losing it again!"
"No thing, Maximus. And, actually, I'm not that mad about the moodbreaker."
"Why?"
"Because I wanna take my time with you. And that means hours of hot, sweaty sex!"
Max gulped. "H-hours…"
"But…there's one teeny-tiny problem."
"And that would be?"
"I don't have any fucking idea where I should take you for our date."
Now a wide smirk appeared on her face as an idea came into Max's mind how to help Chloe out. "I know the perfect spot!"
6th August 2016, Portland, Oregon
Steph Gingrich's apartment
With a audible clicking sound the door to Steph Gingrich's apartment was unlocked and swung open.
"Well, that's it. That's my place. C'mon in!" Steph said as she walked in, Chloe following her stat.
The bluenette let her gaze wander around the spacy apartment, her eyes widening with every passing second. "Holy shitballs!" she gasped in awe as she saw the nerdy interior. Collectibles, movie-posters, costumes, comic books and other stuff that turned the place into a nerd-lair.
"I'm glad you like it," remarked Steph with a smirk, putting Chloe's duffle bag on the ground.
"Like it?! This place is like a wet nerdy dream coming true. Just look at this awesome stuff!"
While Chloe instantly browsed through Steph's movie-collection, the auburn-haired woman got rid of her gun, the handcuffs and her badge, placing this stuff on the kitchen counter. "Fell free to rummage through this stuff as much as you want, and if you see something you like to watch, just place it by the TV. I'm gonna get you some sheets for the night." she said and made her way to the bedroom, where she got Chloe some bedlinen, and returned to the living room.
As Steph saw that Chloe had the gun in her hands, she dropped the sheets, darted towards the punky girl and ripped the pistol off her hands. "Hey! Don't ever touch that again!" she yelled, her expression more than dead serious.
"S-sorry!" Chloe stammered, taking some steps back, "I-I never saw a gun before and…"
Out of a sudden, Steph wrapped her arms around Chloe, hugging her intensively. "Please, don't scare me like this again! I was so worried!"
Hearing more worry than anger in Steph's shaky voice, Chloe closed her eyes and whispered in Steph's ear. "I'd never hurt myself, Steph. Sorry for giving you any worries!"
Shaking her head, Steph backed away. "You don't have to be sorry. I left the gun out in the open. It was my fault. I should've known better. Maybe it was a bad idea to take you in."
"No, Steph," Chloe replied, "It was the best idea ever! Everyone fucks up sometimes, and actually, I should've known better, too. I'm just glad to be here with you. Thanks again!"
The auburn-haired woman pulled the beanie off her head and placed it on Chloe's head with a smirk. "No biggie, Chloe. We just have to be cautious with such things in future. And now, I'd say that you take a nice, hot bath while I'm gonna prepare your bed and order us some food. Sounds like a plan?"
"Hell yeah!" Chloe cheered and Steph brought her to the bathroom.
While she was lying in bed, Steph stared at the ceiling, recalling the last hours. Since her girlfriend had broken up with her a few months ago, the evenings, except the ones she spent with Mikey, had been very lonely, sad and boring.
But today's evening with Chloe had been the best. They had had so much fun. Watching a movie, eating junk food, playing videogames, talking nonsense; things she scarcely had done with her ex-girlfriend.
But recalling these fond events of this evening wasn't the reason that kept her awake. It was this tingling sensation she felt right now. This feeling she always had when she'd watched Chloe. The feeling she felt in her stomach every time she saw that young girl's smile; felt her warmth; smelled her odor. Yes, Steph Gingrich had a crush on Chloe Price, though she knew that she shouldn't.
If Chloe would've been a slight older girl she'd met in a bar or coffee shop, the case would be clear: asking her out for a date a few times, landing in bed with her and hoping for an everlasting relationship. But things were different. Chloe was underage and Steph was her legal guardian for the time being. Let alone that the young woman was investigating a crime, which Chloe was involved in.
'Keep it professional!' she chided herself internally, let out a big sigh and tried to fall asleep. Eventually, the stress of the day took its toll and let drowsiness engulf her body after some time. Only moments away from falling into slumber, Steph's eyes snapped wide open as someone was climbing under her cover, flung an arm around her body and cuddled the young woman tightly. Steph turned her head and her eyes met Chloe's.
"Chloe, wh-what are you doing?" she whispered with a trembling voice, her heartrate and breathing increasing upon this closeness, though she tried to suppress it.
"I-I don't wanna sleep alone, Steph."
Taking a few deep breaths, Steph tried to calm down her body some more and looked at the bluenette with a soft smile. "I-it's okay, Chloe. Of course you can sleep here, if you want to. Just let me get your…"
The young woman was about to get up as Chloe softly touched her cheek and planted a kiss on her lips. Like struck by a lightning, Steph stiffened and remained completely stunned. Her entire being went haywire. While her heart wanted to give in, her head scolded her to keep a distance, which lead to the effect that her body didn't know what to do.
Receiving no resistance, Chloe kept on kissing Steph and shuffled herself even closer to have full body contact. And this was the moment Steph's body didn't listen to her mind anymore and acted on its own.
She returned Chloe's kisses with passion, wrapping her arms around the younger girl and pulled her even closer. But now that she was taking the lead, she actually realized how clumsy Chloe's kisses and touches were. How she became more and more diffident in her doings. Just at this moment it appeared to Steph that Chloe probably had none or at least not much sexual experience. Immediately her mind took over again and told her to stop before making everything worse.
"Chloe…" Steph said with a slight moan, because Chloe was still kissing her wildly, "W-we need to stop. We…we just can't…"
As if she wanted to convince Steph otherwise, Chloe intensified her actions, kissing the woman's neck and let her hands wander around her body.
"Oh Chloe…s-stop it…" Steph moaned, about to give in once more. But she mustn't! Mustering all her willpower, Steph overcame her urges and let her frustration out in a big blast.
"STOP IT!" she yelled, pushing Chloe so hard away that she landed on the floor with a groan. Both looked at each other in shock. Steph because she couldn't believe what she'd just done, and Chloe because she was hurt emotionally.
"Chloe…" Steph spoke softly, trying to reach out for the girl, whose face was now grimaced by emotional pain as she jumped up and ran out of the room. "Chloe, wait!" she called after the bluenette, following her immediately.
The girl had already opened the apartment door a bit as Steph reached her and slammed it shut in front of her nose, blocking it with her body.
"LET ME GO!" Chloe screamed, her red-cried eyes burning with anger.
"No, Chloe! You know I can't let you go."
"Why not? Nobody cares about me anyway, not even you!"
"That's not true, Chloe! I care a lot about you!"
"Oh really? Stop shitting me, Steph and tell me the fucking truth! Why did you take me in?"
Steph knew why she'd taken Chloe in; why she liked her company; but she also had to hide the truth from everyone, because nobody would understand or even tolerate it. "Chloe, I-I can't…" she spoke quietly, embracing her own body.
"Why not, Steph? Why fucking not? Was it pity?"
"Chloe…"
"Did you just feel sorry for me?"
"Chloe, it's complicated…"
"Then just try to explain!"
"I-I can't." Steph said with a trembling voice, tears dripping down her face.
"Y-you can't explain? You can't fucking explain?" the bluenette blurted out, followed by a scoff, "Y'know what, Steph? Fuck you! Now get out of my fucking way!"
"I can't." repeated Steph, hugging herself even stronger.
"Why, Steph? Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to keep me here?"
"BECAUSE I HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOU!" Steph shouted as she had to release the pressure. For some moments Chloe and Steph just gazed at each other, not saying one word. Only Chloe's following sobs were breaking the silence.
With slow steps, Steph approached the crying girl and took her into a tight, comforting hug. While she was brushing through her blue hair, Steph whispered softly into Chloe's ear. "Please don't go, Chloe! I need you and I promise you that we're gonna make this work, okay! I'll take care that you can stay with me until you're 18, first thing in the morning. After you're old enough, you can decide for your own where you wanna stay." She broke the contact, looked at Chloe with a soft smile and then placed another kiss on her lips. "Chloe, I know it's crazy and against every rule in the books and if someone finds out I'm gonna be in a lot of trouble, but…do you wanna be my girlfriend?"
Once more, Chloe sobbed intensively, but this time out of relieve. She pressed her head onto Steph's chest and nodded.
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
Arcadia Bay Harbor
The vast room of the industry building at the almost entirely abandoned harbor was filled with a lot of technical equipment. Large displays, servers, computers, and everything else you need to run a full covered operation.
The whole personal was sitting on rowed chairs in front of a big screen, which came to life as Colonel Sanders, dressed in a camouflage combat suit, entered.
A young Lieutenant stood up straight and yelled: "'ten hut!", making everyone else jump up and salute to the Colonel, who took position in front of the crowd.
"At ease!" he said and the soldiers sat down again. He took a remote, pressed a button and a picture of a blue-haired girl along with some data appeared on the screen. "Alright, men, listen up! Yesterday, at 2230 hours, our satellites picked up an outburst of blue Omega-Waves right in the town's center. The patterns matched the outburst we received from Portland and earlier that day from Blackwell Academy. By pinpointing the origin of the signal and cross-referencing the video footage of some local stores nearby, we were able to confirm that this girl-" he pointed with a laser at bluenette's picture, "Is our target."
Most of the soldiers now opened their notebooks and started to write down important information.
"Her name is Chloe Elizabeth Price, 18 years old and a student at the local private school. Our mission is to take her into custody and bring her to our research facility."
"That shouldn't be that hard. So why the big party here?" chimed a voice of a young soldier from within the crowd.
With another click of the button, Sander's let a new set of pictures appear on the screen, showing bloodied, dismembered bodies. Sometimes it was even hard to tell if the pile of blood and bones had been a human being once. "This girl already killed 6 of our men on her own, plus one civilian. She's extremely dangerous and a threat for every American citizen."
"Then why don't we just kill her?" ask another soldier.
"Her powers are far beyond anything humanity ever came across. Since we don't know if she's the only one, we need to get as much information as possible. Especially how to eliminate her kind, or – in a best case scenario – how to use their abilities for our own advantage."
"Is she some kind of an X-Men mutant? How does her power work?"
Sanders eyes fixed on an older man in a suit on the far end of the room, who shook his head. "There are some theories about her being, but they're classified, soldier! All that we know is that she uses the new discovered Omega-Energy. Omega-Energy, as you've already read in your first mission briefings, is the energy that seems to run our entire universe."
The image on the screen changed once more, now picturing a map of Arcadia Bay.
"Alright, let's talk about how the show's supposed go down. From a source we know that our target will have a date tonight with this girl." Another picture of a freckled girl with chin-long brown hair appeared. "Her name is Maxine Caulfield, 18 years old, also a student and additionally the student's council at Blackwell Academy."
"Cute girl!" a soldier remarked with a whistle.
"And a dyke." Mentioned another one.
"Discipline!" blurted the Colonel, "This may be no military operation, but we're still soldiers, so keep it fucking professional!" He took a deep breath, cursed internally and continued the briefing. "Anyway, we are on American soil and need to keep a low profile here. This means, avoiding the public at all cost and no unnecessary casualties! In and out, that's it."
"We don't know where the date will take place, but we know where they will go after that. Two locations," He pointed at Blackwell and Max's house, "4 possible scenarios, and we have no fucking idea which one will occur, but only have this one chance or else we'll draw too much attention and alarm the target. Bottom-line: we'll have to improvise from the start. This means that everyone will be on standby the whole time, no exceptions. As soon as we know what they're gonna do, we'll strike and apprehend the target. Best case scenario: we'll catch her alone. Worst case: we have to take care of the other girl. And with taking care I mean stun, not killing her. Yes, Stransky, I'm looking at you! Before I'll go into the details for every single team, are there any questions so far?"
"Why here? Why didn't we take care of this little cunt in Portland?" said a man with blonde hair, dressed in a black combat suit.
"Because it had already cost us 6 men, Mr. Stransky!" Mr. Wilcock's voice chimed through the hall as he closed in, followed by Sean Prescott. He took the remote from Colonel Sanders and flicked back to the first image of the presentation. "Don't be fooled by her innocent appearance. This girl killed two of our teams in merely seconds in a cruel way. She's vicious, she's merciless, and needs to be neutralized. Sadly, we underestimated her in Portland and she managed to disappear, until she arrived here. We don't know what drove her to Arcadia Bay, but we need to end this here and now!"
With a step forward Sanders took over again. "The extraction team will get these new Taser-bullets and will ONLY use them, no need for lethal force whatsoever. Has everybody understood?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!"
11th March 2017, Portland, Oregon
Steph Gingrich's apartment
"Where's my birthday girl?" chimed Steph Gingrich's voice throughout the apartment as she came home from work.
"Kitchen!" answered Chloe and Steph instantly made her way there after getting rid of her shoes. She approached the bluenette, who was preparing some snacks, from behind and flung her arms around Chloe's waist while lying her head on her shoulder.
"Happy birthday, young one! Already preparing everything for tonight?"
"Yup, hella preparing!" Chloe put down the knife, turned around and let her lips collide with Steph's for a long and intimate kiss, which both broke with some reluctance. "How was work!"
Steph sighed, opened the fridge and took out a can of orange juice and drank from it. "You know, always the same: dead bodies everywhere. It still pisses me off that the FBI took over your case."
"Well, fucking and living with the main suspect doesn't get you any plus points." Chloe remarked with a wry, mischievous smirk, receiving a soft push by Steph.
"You're not a suspect anymore, Chloe. Everyone agrees that you were drugged and left there for some fucked up satanic ritual." She took one last sip from the can, placed it on the counter and approached her loved one with slow steps as she spoke with a tantalizing voice. "Say, my little punk-girl, I wanna take a hot shower before the party, care to join?"
"Y-yeah!" exhaled Chloe nervously and gulped.
Slowly, Steph placed her equipment on the counter, knowing that Chloe would never touch it again without her permission, while the young girl stripped off her beanie. And once more they both kissed intensively, making their way to the bathroom. With every step another garment dropped to the floor until both were entirely naked, only breaking the contact for a short moment to turn on the shower.
"C'mon, young one, show me what you've learned!" cooed Steph into Chloe's ear, who, however, backed away with another smirk.
"Nu-uh, I'm the birthday girl, I'll come first!"
Drawing hot lines over Chloe's wet body with her index finger in a slow motion, Steph closed in again with a wry smile on her lips. "So you wanna come first?" she spoke seductively, "And how do you wanna come?"
Her boldness entirely gone and not moving a limb, Chloe gulped as her older and way more experienced girlfriend started to let her hands wander around her body from top to bottom, stopping now and then when she'd reached her breasts or her butt. On purpose she avoided Chloe's center in order to bring the now 18 years old girl to the edge.
The bluenette's moaning grew louder and louder with every second. Still, Steph didn't even bother to give her the much needed massage of her nether regions, so that she was already about to do it herself, but was stopped by Steph immediately.
"Uh-uh," she said with a warm smile, "Be patient!"
After a few more strokes over Chloe's body, Steph slowly began to let her tongue lick over almost every inch of the young girl's soft skin, nearly driving her insane. As, once more, she left out her sensitive spot, Chloe grabbed Steph's head and pressed it against her crotch. With a giggle, the auburn-haired woman complied and gave her girlfriend the so much wanted massage.
What followed was the most intensive and quickest orgasm Chloe had ever felt. She groaned out every bit of lust that had piled up, and if Steph hadn't helped her to slowly slide down the shower's wall, Chloe would've just crumbled to the ground.
Almost hyperventilating, the bluenette sat on the floor of the shower. It took her blanked mind a while to boot up again. As she opened her eyes slowly, she gazed at a warm smiling Steph, who was sitting on the ground, too, softly brushing over Chloe thighs.
"So, how was it?" she asked, leaning in for a soft kiss.
"Fucking…amazeballs!" Chloe panted, barely able to form a smirk, "Your turn!"
Pressing her hand on her girlfriends chest, Steph held her down, giving the bluenette another kiss. "Later. We better hurry up or else Mikey, Grace and Stacy will be standing in front of our door while we're still busy."
"But…"
"Don't worry, young one! I'll safe it for after the party, and then…" she leaned forward, kissing Chloe so intense that it almost hurt to break it again, "We'll take all the time we want. I love you, Chloe"
"I love you, too!"
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
The Caulfield's house
"Let's see…35…37…ah, bingo! 39 Pine Road," Chloe spoke to herself as she checked one last time her position on the smartphone's map with the house in front of her. Nodding satisfied that this seemed to be the right place, the bluenette literally jumped over the lawn to the front door and pushed the button for the bell. Shifting her weight from one foot to another, nervously, Chloe waited for the door to open, still hoping that she got the right house.
It clicked and the door swung open, a wide smiling Max greeting her. Both collided instantly for a long kiss, happy to be together again.
Slowly, the two girls parted and Chloe took a step back to gaze at Max's appearance. "Damn, babe, lookin' hot!" she remarked with a smile, because this time Max wore a short, black skirt and tights, paired with a blue button shirt and a leather jacket.
"Thanks, Chlo! But you're looking hella hot, too!"
Instead of her common clothes, Chloe wore a normal blue jeans and a wide, red and black checkered button shirt over a black top.
Max turned around, grabbed two helmets and yelled one last "Later, mom!" into the house before she closed the door and walked to the garage, Chloe following her. "Here!" she said to the bluenette, who arched an eyebrow as she gazed at the helmet she'd received.
"Are we gonna drive with a scooter to our date?"
Having the handle of the garage gate in her hand, Max stopped in her doing and glared at Chloe with a scrunched up nose. "A scooter?! What am I? Fifteen and in a desperate need of independent motorized transportation? Nope…" With a wide smirk she opened the gate, crossing her arms as she revealed their vehicle, "I prefer four wheels and more horsepower!"
Chloe's jaw dropped in unbelief as she looked at the ATV in front of them. "D-dude, you own an ATV?"
"Actually…no. It's my dad's, but I'm allowed to use it from time to time."
"Okay, Caulfield, you've hereby earned the permanent pole position on my list of badassery!"
After giving Chloe a peck on the cheek, Max put on her helmet and took her place on the vehicle. "C'mon, Chlo. We need to get going!" she said with a dampened voice, starting the ATV's engine.
Without wasting another second, Chloe put in her helmet, too, and jumped onto the seat right behind Max. Both cheered loudly as the smaller girl punched the gas, letting them drive to their destination with high speed.
Arcadia Bay cliffs
The fresh and salty air blew through the now open visor of Chloe's helmet as Max parked the ATV right at the beach. She closed her eyes and took a deep inhale, already feeling some sort of relaxation. Being at the ocean had always calmed her down. On her way to Arcadia Bay, Chloe had spent several nights close to the sea.
She took off her helmet to let the sound of the crushing waves reach her ears and the breeze play with her bangs. It was a quiet moment, only broken by the clicking sound of Max's instant camera. Chloe instantly shifted her gaze towards her girlfriend and gave her a wry smile.
"You're so beautiful!" mentioned Max in awe as she looked at the picture, handing it to Chloe.
"Said the most adorable girl in the world," replied the punky girl as she took the photo to look at it, "Holy shitballs, you're a freakin' talent!"
"N-nah, I'm not that good."
"Don't sell yourself shorter than you already are!"
"Hey! No fair!" blurted Max, giving Chloe's shoulder a soft push.
Snickering quietly, the punk-girl wrapped her arms around Max and gave her a kiss. "Just kidding, I like you the way you are!"
"You're such a dork…sometimes!"
"Yeah, but I can be bitchy, too."
"C'mon," said Max with a smile, breaking the hug, "Let's keep going and spare some mush for our date."
The smaller girl walked over to the transportation box on the back of the ATV and opened it, revealing a big backpack and a basket.
"Picnic on the beach?" asked Chloe as Max handed her the pack.
"Close, but no," the brunette replied, locking the box again, "Too classy, too cliché, and…" then she pointed with her finger to the lighthouse at the top if the nearby cliffs. "I rather prefer the high ground."
Following Max's finger, Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Can't we just drive up there?"
"Nope, the roads are blocked for vehicles. Now c'mon, lazybones, just a little bit hiking and we're there."
"Easy to say for you, 'cause you don't have to schlepp this hella heavy backpack up there."
With slow steps, Max came closer and gave Chloe a long and intensive kiss, which made both girls moan softly as their tongues swirled around each other. "You'll be generously rewarded, promised!" she spoke with a soft smile, brushing with her hand over Chloe's cheek.
"Then let's get going!" the bluenette said with a wide grin and both began their ascend to the lighthouse.
12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon
Steph Gingrich's apartment
It was way past midnight, maybe 2 or 3 in the morning. Steph was already in a tight slumber, while Chloe was still fully awake, gazing at the ceiling with a soft smile as she recalled last evening.
'This birthday has been the shit! I can't remember having so much fun my entire life. Playing D 'n' D, Videogames, just talkin' nonsense and fooling around. And Stacy…she's actually happy…like I am. Way to happy to sleep right now.'
Chloe turned her head, looked into the peaceful face of her girlfriend and gave her a peck on her forehead.
"Thanks, Steph, for everything!" she whispered, cautiously freed herself from Steph's arm that was draped over her naked body and stood up.
Only putting over one of her oversized shirts, Chloe made her way to the kitchen and started to make herself some food. Suddenly, a pair of arms embraced her body, accompanied by some kisses on her neck.
"Can't sleep, young one?" chimed Steph's drowsy voice from behind, sending the warm feeling of joy and love through Chloe's body.
"Mh-mh," she hummed with a smile, enjoying the closeness.
"Nightmares?"
The young girl now turned around, placed a kiss onto her girlfriend's lips while some tears rolled down her cheeks. "No, just too much love and joy! Thanks, Steph!"
"I'm glad that you're happy…that I make you happy!" Their lips softly collide once more for some time. It was a kiss of deep love for each other. "I love you, Chloe!"
"I love you, too, Steph!"
"I'm gonna hit the toilet and then go back to bed, okay?" the auburn-haired woman said, gave Chloe another peck on the cheek and went to the bathroom.
Humming one of her favorite songs, Chloe cleaned up the kitchen, took the plate with her sandwiches and a glass of water, and walked over to the couch.
She was half-way there as the front door was kicked open and three masked men, all of them dressed in black combat-suites and armed to the teeth entered the apartment. Completely startled and overwhelmed, Chloe shrieked and dropped the food. Before she was able to move again, one of the armed men had taken the young girl into a tight grip and pushed her to the ground, binding her hands behind her back.
"I got the target!" he spoke, hurtfully pulling the bluenette to her feet again.
They were about to drag Chloe out of the apartment as she heard Steph's voice yelling at them. "Drop the guns and let her go, assholes!"
For a short moment, Chloe saw Steph standing there, wearing a bathrobe, gun in her hands and aiming at the attackers, until a whipping sound chimed through the apartment and Chloe's girlfriend went down, screaming in agony as she held her right arm while the pistol hit the ground.
"STEPH!" Chloe screamed, squirming in the grasp of her captor, but to no avail.
Without wasting a second, one of the armed guys approached the wounded and whining woman, his machine pistol still aimed at her. He kicked the gun away and seemed to wait for further orders. "Sir?"
"Expendable. No witnesses!" said the third man plainly and another silenced shot sounded.
With horror Chloe had to watch how Steph's body went limp and her groaning stopped after the bullet had penetrated her skull. Realizing that Stephanie Gingrich; her girlfriend; the person who gave her hope and love, was dead, Chloe began to sob heavily, tears now flowing in a constant stream. The pain of loss and sorrow rushed through her entire body in merely milliseconds and made her despair. She wanted to scream; wanted to lay down and die; but instead a dark vail covered her sight and darkness engulfed her mind. It was a familiar feeling, because she experienced it before. And before everything went dark she somehow knew that more blood was going to be shed tonight.
"Exfiltrate!" ordered the third man, already making his way to the door.
Meanwhile, Chloe had stopped crying, her head down and her blue hair glowing. The man who was holding the girl tried to move her, but as much as he pulled, she didn't budge an inch.
"What the…" he began, but was cut off mid-sentence as his head imploded into a mash of blood, brain, hair, fabric and skull. His corpse hit the ground while Chloe just stood there, her hands clenched into fists, breaking the bonds, and her voice distorted, quiet and threatening.
"You killed her," she spoke, raised her sight and gazed with blue glowing eyes at Steph's murderer, who hissed a curse and was about to lift his gun to shoot Chloe. He hadn't even had the chance to place a shot as his body flew against the wall behind him with such force that it was literally pulverized, ending up in a cloud of cinderblock, blood, flesh and bones. Only one man remained, his voice dripping with panic.
"This is Echo Tango Leader, she's awake. Two men down! I repeat, two…"
Now trying to take a shot at the girl, too, while he spoke, the gun together with his hands got ripped away. Screaming in agony and horror, the masked man gazed at his arms, not realizing that he was already floating above the ground.
With slow steps Chloe closed in, her expression emotionless, yet still radiating grief. "Why?" she whispered, "Why did you do that? Who sent you?" But she received no answer and therefore ended the still screaming man's agony by ripping his body into pieces, scattering them over the entire room.
Once more, darkness vailed Chloe's mind, sending her into a soothing unconsciousness.
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
The Lighthouse
Reaching the lighthouse atop the cliffs hadn't been as hard as Chloe would've expected. It had taken the girls less than 20 minutes to reach their destination. During the hike they both talked a lot about their former schools and how they survived. To Max's surprise, like her, Chloe had been constantly bullied. But in contrast to the brunette, she just never gave a fuck about it.
Right after they had arrived, Max went into the woods to gather some firewood for the existing fireplace, while Chloe unpacked the backpack.
'Let's see…some dishes, cutlery, wine, paper towels, a blanket…damn, seems like Max thought about everything. Telling me that this isn't the first time she's doing this.'
With a happy smile on her face, Max returned to the fireplace and put down the collected wood. "Can you please take care of the fire? I wanna take some shots of the sundown."
"Sure thing, babe!" Chloe answered, already piling up the twigs and branches while Max grabbed her camera and walked over to the edge of the cliffs. Taking one last peek over her shoulder to see if her girlfriend wasn't looking in her direction, Chloe focused on the fireplace. Her hair and eyes faintly glowed as a small fire emerged between the stock, igniting it instantly.
"Wowser, you must've been some kind of a girl scout to light up a campfire that fast, 'cause it always takes me hours to get one of these started." Max's voice suddenly chimed from behind, startling the bluenette.
"Geez, Maximus, you almost scared the shit out of me!"
"Jumpy?" the brunette mocked.
"No," Chloe replied bluntly, stood up and pulled Max closer, "I told you I'm very cautious. And now," she said with a fawning voice, moving her head closer, "TICKLE ATTACK!" she yelled, tickling Max, who burst out into loud laughter, squirming in Chloe's tight hold.
"Ch-Chloe…sto…stop!"
Like Max had given her an order, Chloe stopped the treatment, pulled the brunette closer again and placed a long kiss on her lips.
"See," she then spoke with a wry smirk, "Always be cautious!"
"No," Max replied softly with a brush over her girlfriend's cheek, "Because I'll always trust you. Now c'mon, let's eat!"
12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon
Mikey North's house
Epic music, chiming from a smartphone, broke the silence in Mikey and Grace North's bedroom.
"Mmmh…Mikey…" Grace, Mikey's wife, groaned drowsily, patting her husband's arm.
"What?" he mumbled into the pillow, in which he'd burrowed his head.
"Your stupid phone's ringing."
Letting out a deep sigh, Mikey tried to reach for his phone on the nightstand aimlessly, until he found the rectangular, flat object. The display came to life, blinding the young man as he glanced at it. Seeing that it was 4 in the morning and Steph's ID he sighed once more, almost awaiting it to be an emergency at the PD, and took the call.
"Hey Steph…'sup?"
[Chloe]: (sobbing, her voice trembling) Mikey…
Hearing that Chloe was crying, Mikey instantly sat up straight, now fully awake. "Chloe?! What's wrong? Are you crying?"
[Chloe]: She's dead…th-they killed her…
"Wait, what? Chloe, who's dead? Where's Steph? Chloe?"
Receiving only a constant sobbing by Chloe, Mikey jumped out of bed and began to put on some pants and a jacket over his pajama.
"Honey, what's wrong?" asked Grace with concern, her eyes following her husband as he was opening the safe which was containing his gun.
"It's Chloe. She's crying and said that someone was killed. I-I need to check it out."
"Ugh," groaned his wife, letting herself fall back onto the mattress, "Jeez, Mikey, it's probably just another prank. I bet these two got drunk right after we left and are now fooling around with you."
"And what if not?" he returned with a serious tone and a frown, "Listen, I'm just gonna check it out, and if it was another prank I'll go all Duurgaron on those two and will be back in a jiff."
Grace let out a big sigh, waved with her hand and turned around to continue her sleep. "Just be careful, okay!"
A thousand possible scenarios rushed through Mikey North's mind as he drove through Portland. Luckily, the streets were almost empty at this time of night so that he reached the apartment building in 20 minutes. He parked the car and went straight for the front door. He hadn't even reached for the building's security guard's bell, as Mikey realized that something was wrong.
Despite that it was night, the door was unlocked and a crack open, the guard nowhere to be seen. Cautiously, Mikey opened the door and peeked inside, his hand already reaching for his still holstered gun. The lobby and the security counter were empty, no person to be seen. "Hello?" he shouted, after taking another look around, but nobody answered. It was an eerie silence that let Mikey's arm hair stand up while a shiver went over his spine. He drew his gun on instinct, like he somehow knew that trouble was ahead.
"Damn!" Mikey cursed silently as he called the elevator, only to find out that it was stuck somewhere. Still not letting his guard down, he went to the staircase and made his way to Steph's floor in a fast pace. As he was approaching Chloe's and Steph's apartment, Mikey slowed down. The door was open and damaged, everything was still quiet. He leaned against the wall and readied his gun, trying to remember his training at the academy.
He took one last deep breath and entered the apartment, gun up and ready, but as he saw at the horrifying scenery, he just froze. "Holy shit!" he gasped, letting his sight wander around the bloody mess. As his gaze fell upon Chloe, who was sitting on the ground with her head down, Mikey gasped and just jumped towards her.
"Chloe! Wh-what happened here?"
"They killed her," was Chloe's whispered answer. As she finally looked up, Michael looked into a pair of red-cried, sorrow-filled eyes. "They just came in…took me…and…" Her eyes oncemore filling with tears, Chloe had to muster every bit of emotional strength to continue. "Steph tried to help, but…" And then, she lost her composure, crying out her last words. "They just shot her!"
For as long as Chloe cried, Mikey took her into a tight embrace, her words chiming in his ears again and again. Only after the bluenette had calmed down enough, Mikey broke the hug. "Listen, Chloe, I'm gonna call the PD and get some men here." he said, receiving a faint nod from the girl.
He took out his phone, but before he dialed a number, Mikey approached Steph's body with slow steps. If it weren't for the blood, the hole in her skull and her pale skin, Steph would've seemed to be asleep. His lips were trembling while big droplets were running down his face. Knowing that he wasn't able to hold his composure any longer, Mikey speed-dialed a number. And as he spoke into the phone, his trembling, dull voice almost failed him several times.
"Cap, it's North. I-I need an entire team at Detective Gingrich's apartment…She's…she's dead…Chloe's fine, considering the circumstances…Probably three suspects dead…Bits and pieces…Yes, Cap. In 15 minutes, got it."
After terminating the call, Mikey walked over to Chloe again and sat down beside her. Both flung their arms around each other and began to cry, mourning the loss of a very close friend and beloved person.
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
The Lighthouse
Arm in arm, Max and Chloe lied on the blanked, gazing at the stars above them. Except from the occasional cracking of the dying fire's ember and the sound of crushing waves at the bottom of the cliffs it was completely silent.
"I love the stars, y'know," Chloe suddenly spoke, "They're so beautiful and seem to be in arms reach, yet they're so far away."
"Wowser, that was sooo romantic and kinda poetic, Chlo."
"Max?" she asked a moment later, making the brunette to look at her, "Can I tell you a secret?"
"Sure." Max answered, giving her girlfriend's hand a soft squeeze.
"In my dreams, I've actually visited them. I-I mean not exactly these stars, 'cause some of 'em are already dead, but others. Far away stars and planets on the other side of the Galaxy. I'm drawing them in my pictures. The landscapes, flora and fauna, huge cities of unknown architecture. It all pops up in my mind in such detail like I've really been there." She let out a big sigh, shifting her gaze away from Max's blue eyes. "I know, I'm a lost case, ready for the looney bin."
But Max softly touched the bluenette's cheek, making her turn her head back. "No, Chloe, you're not insane. You know how often I dreamt to finally leave this planet? To be free among the stars, enjoying their beauty. You're right, they actually are out of reach and probably even dead, but you're not. I look in your eyes and see exactly the same elegance; the same…greatness and power. You're unique, Chloe, and I'm just sooo happy that we've found each other! For once, destiny was in our favor!"
She leaned in and their lips meat. Chloe wrapped her arms around Max's neck and pulled her even closer. With every passing second, their kisses grew more intense, letting them both moan softly. Max pressed her body even closer to Chloe's and broke the kiss only to whisper 4 words: "I want you, Chloe!"
The punk-girl's reply was another kiss and a pull that let Max climb atop her girlfriend, intensifying their contact. Both wanted it and if a sudden cracking of the underwood hadn't startled them, they would've done more.
12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon
Steph Gingrich's apartment
Loud clicks and bright flashes filled the entire apartment as the officers of the forensic department made shot after shot from the bloodbath.
"Goddammit!" cursed Captain Hayes as he witnessed how Steph Gingrich's body bag was zipped close and brought away. "What the hell happened here?" he added, glimpsing at Michael North, who stood there in silence, caught in deep thoughts.
"I don't know, Cap." he answered with a dull voice, "But whoever these fuckers were, they wanted Chloe. Steph got in their way and they killed her and then…" Mikey let out a big sigh, looking at his captain with determination, "Damn, it's like in the orphanage. Someone came in here, grounded these assholes, saved Chloe and left again."
"Hmm, but why the girl? You think these were some traffickers, who wanted to kidnap and sell her?"
"No," the Detective said, approaching the body of the man with no head, "Just look at their equipment, Cap. Silenced H&K MP7, the latest 1911 model, NVGs, tactical vests, grenades, high-end radios…everything state of the art tech. These guys were too well equipped to be just some traffickers, who wanted to kidnap a girl."
"Then what are you suggesting, North? That our government wanted to seize her?"
"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out and hunt these fuckers down! And when I'm done with them, I'm gonna find out who shredded them into pieces!"
Hayes exhaled deeply as his gaze dropped. "I'm afraid this won't happen," he said, earning a frown by Mikey.
"What do you mean?"
"The FBI is taking over the case right away. Since Gingrich was our Detective and friend, they see us biased. Besides that they're already investigating the Jefferson-case."
"This is bullshit!" yelled Mikey, making everyone in this room to look at him, "You know as well as I do that they've got zip, nothing!"
"Mikey," said the Captain, resting his hand soothingly of Michael North's shoulder, "I know how you feel. I already lost a partner and friend, too. Steph was like a sister to you and god knows that you want to get even, but…right now, it's the FBI's show. I suggest that you take the girl and go home. Take some days off. Get your head clear again. Okay?"
Mikey just ripped his shoulder from Hayes' touch and walked over to Chloe without another word, helping the poor girl packing some needed stuff before they would leave.
Portland Streets
Chloe hadn't said one word since Mikey had found her in Steph's apartment, so that the drive to his house was accompanied by pure silence. But neither did Mikey blame nor pressure the young girl. She's been through so much that it was merely a miracle that she wasn't entirely insane already.
They were only 5 minutes away from the North's house as Chloe's voice suddenly broke the quietness. "Mikey, please stop the car," she spoke calmly, her gaze fixed on her lap.
Fearing that Chloe might have become sick, Mikey did what he was told and stopped the car, looking worried at his friend. "What's wrong, Chloe?"
"I need to go away, Mikey. You're all in danger as long as I'm around."
"Chloe," Mikey said with a sigh, shaking his head, "I can't do this. Someone is after you and…dammit Chloe, if I let you go all by yourself, then they will get you and I won't let this happen!"
Out of a sudden, Chloe turned her head, her eyes burning with fury instead of sadness. "You saw what they did to Steph. Do you think they would stop because you have a wife and a kid, huh?"
Her words were seeping into his mind, telling Mikey that Chloe was right; that he was about to endanger his family if he would take her in. He averted her gaze, still not wanting to agree to the bluenette's idea. "I can take you to a safe location. Put you under the full protection of the state. False ID and everything."
"It won't work, Mikey, and you know it!" Chloe simply replied, making him glimpsing in her eyes once more.
"And how would you know?"
"You said it yourself. These guys were more than just some fucking thugs. And what if they come for you to find out where I am?"
"And you think that you'd have a bigger chance on your own?"
"No, but…I just don't want anybody to get hurt for me again. Especially not you, Grace and Stacy. Mikey, please, let me go. Let me get as far away from you folks as possible. Something inside tells me that this is the right thing to do. I'm 18 now. I can decide for my own. I'll go under the radar. I'll vanish. You folks will be safe, 'cause you'll never know where the fuck I am."
Some time passed by until Mikey decided to give a reply. "Lemme guess. There's nothing I can do or say to stop you from doing this?" he said, and as Mikey saw the determination in Chloe's eyes, he knew that every try to convince her otherwise was doomed to fail. With a deep sigh he reached inside his pocket, brought forth his wallet and handed Chloe a plastic card, who looked at it with awe. "Take this. It's unlimited, brand-new and never been used before. I won't report it stolen and I will never undo any transactions, but please…" his eyes met Chloe's once more, but this time with a wry smile, "…keep your outcomes in some reasonable limits, 'cause I still have to feed a family and a house to pay."
Instantly, Chloe jumped out of her seat and gave Mikey a tight hug. "Thanks, Mikey!" she whispered with a sniff, "You're so awesome! I'm gonna miss you guys so much!"
Once again, both cried in each other's arms, knowing that this was a last good bye.
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
The Lighthouse
Both, Max and Chloe jumped up in order to face what was coming out of the woods.
But as Max now recognized the snickering and the mix of familiar voices that she and her girlfriend hadn't realized during their make out session, she groaned and rolled with her eyes. "You gotta be fucking shitting me!"
From the woods, coming up the trail, emerged a group of partying and obviously drunk teenagers, lead by Courtney and Taylor, who stopped immediately as they saw Max and Chloe.
"Ugh, isn't there one place in this fucking town where I don't have to see your ugly visage?!" said the black-haired girl with a heavy voice.
"Hey stupid, take your tiny tits and this dyke, and fuck off! We're here now!" added Taylor, earning some giggles and high-fives from her friend's.
Her body was shaking and her hands clenched into fists. Chloe knew that Max was a volcano ready to explode. But she wanted this date to be special for Max, relaxing. So, letting her rage would've probably been entertaining, but everything else then calming. Therefore, the bluenette decided to defuse the situation and give her girlfriend a show on the side.
"Well, well," Chloe said with a smirk, taking one step in front of Max, "If it isn't the Dead Brain Society akathe Vortex Club. I heard you guys are sooo…what's the term?...ah, elite. But all I see are some drunk and high as fuck assholes, who like bullying other students."
A lot of muttered complains and insults flew against Chloe like a shitstorm, but if anything, it rather amused than insulted her.
"Listen, cunt, we are elite!" hissed Courtney, taking one step towards the taller bluenette.
"Oh really?" she replied with an arched eyebrow and crossed arms, "For being what? Stupid? Fucked-up? I bet I could take it with anyone of ya, liiiiike…you dumb fuck!" Now she pointed at a tall, broad boy, who jumped forward until he was face to face with Chloe, who didn't even flinch but instead grinned sheepishly.
"What did you just call me?" he pressed forth with gritted teeth.
"Do you mean dumb or fuck? It's always hard to tell if you jocks understand more than just one word in a row."
"C'mon, Logan, you can take her!" it chimed from the crowd.
"Listen, bitch, I don't care if you're a girl, but if you call me dumb one more time…"
"Alright," Chloe interrupted him mid-sentence with a shrug, took an apple from the leftovers of the picnic and played with it in one hand, "Just answer me one simple question: How deep is the Mariana Trench?"
Entirely surprised by the question and clearly not knowing the answer, Logan just stared at the bluenette with blinking eyes, turning around several times to plead for some help from his buddies.
"36,200 feet," it chimed from the crowd again.
"That's correct," confirmed Chloe with a nod, ignoring the fact that it wasn't Logan who had answered and that probably someone had just googled it with a smartphone. Immediately she stopped playing with the fruit in her hand and gazed at the boy in front of her deeply. "And what would happen to a human body at the bottom of the trench?"
She took the apple between her two flat hands and crushed it without any effort, sprinkling only Logan, who was startled and took a step back, with apple juice. And as the punk-girl handed Logan another apple, everybody knew that this just turned into a strength contest.
"Logan! Logan! Logan…" the Vortex Club cheered on their star-quarterback as he tried to crush the apple, too. He groaned loudly and his face became redder and redder as he vainly tried to copy Chloe's result, until he had to give up and dropped the fruit.
With a wry smirk, Chloe glanced at it. "Well…that was probably the pressure at the bottom of a swimming pool." she joked, but before she was able to add some more, her head was taken into a soft embrace and Max kissed her so intimately that she forgot everything else.
"That…was so…hot!" the small brunette panted heavily, clearly aroused by this demonstration.
"Okaaaay," Chloe now enounced, not giving a damn if anyone was interested, "We're gonna pack our stuff and bail, 'cause I'm gonna get laid tonight!"
"Hella laid!" added Max with a giggle as both girls began to stuff their belongings into the backpack.
The whole Vortex Club just stood by, not one of them saying a word. And as Chloe and Max just walked past them, the bluenette flipped them the bird with a toothy grin, followed by a "Later, fuckers!"
12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon
Portland streets
Since she'd parted from Mikey this day's morning, Chloe had wandered the streets of Portland aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do next. Something inside her told her to head south. Where to? She had no idea.
More than once, the blue-haired had wished for nothing more than to lay down somewhere and stay there until death with its soothing certainty would embrace her. But something inside told her to move on.
Somehow she knew that someone was still following her; was watching her. Therefor, she stayed in public the whole time. But something inside told her to wait for night's fall and make a stand; let them come.
From the ATM in front of her, a whirring sound emerged as it spit out a bunch of dollar bills. These were Chloe's entire savings from the last 6 months. Enough money to live a simple life on the road for some time. She took the bank card from the machine and glanced at it for some time. Plastic was easy to track, but cash wasn't, so she decided to stick with the old-school type of payment.
After stuffing the pile of money in the inner pocket of her jacket, she zipped it close, shouldered her heavy backpack and made her way into a dark and abandoned alleyway.
Just moments after she'd entered an old, dirty and unused backyard, three masked and fully armed men emerged from the shadows and surrounded her.
The young girl dropped her backpack and waited. She knew that this would happen; she literally provoked it. Now, she just had to be a bit patient.
"Seize her!" ordered the man in front of her, not knowing that he'd just sent his men into death.
From one moment to another Chloe's eyes and hair started to glow blue brightly, and merely a second later, the man to her left was crushed against the wall, his blood flowing in a dense stream as it was squeezed out of his flattening body. The second man to her right shared an equally cruel fate as his torso flew away, while his head and limbs stayed in place, falling to the ground a few seconds later. The third man, however, floated in mid-air, still alive, his arms and legs spread out.
"Omaha Base, Omaha Base, this is…"
"Be quiet!" interrupted Chloe the captured man with her distorted voice. Not voluntarily he had to stop talking as all air suddenly had left his lungs, only to return again a moment later. "We're surrounded by a field that can't be penetrated, neither by your radio nor our sonic waves. So, no one can hear or help you." She closed in on her victim as his mask was ripped away from his face, showing the girl the fear in his facial expression. "Who are you? Who sent you?"
Silence.
"Do you know what I am?"
Once more, silence.
"Listen closely! I can torture you for hours to get my answers, or…you simply talk and I'll grant you a quick death."
"Y-you're a Neph'arim."
"Hmm…so, you know what a Neph'arim is. That's interesting. Why are you hunting me?"
"F-fuck you!"
"Fuck you?" the bluenette scoffed with some amusement, "You humans and your vulgar language. Chloe uses it quite often. It's amusing and the first time I emerged from my sleep I used it, too, but…its not worth being used by a Neph'arim. But I'm trailing off." She focused on the former masked man again, increasing the pull on his limbs. "Who sent you?"
"For my country!" the man answered in pain with an evil stare. After a cracking sound chimed from his mouth, he gagged and his body began to spasm until it hang limp in the air.
Bobbing her head slightly to one side, Chloe gazed at the dead man in front of her emotionlessly. "Poison? What a shame." While the body fell to the ground, the man's radio kept floating. With a stretched out arm the girl took it, dropped the surrounding field, pushed the button and spoke.
"Whoever is hearing this, I don't know who you are, but you know what I am. You know what I'm capable of and you know that you don't stand a chance against me. From today on I'll disappear. I'm just seeking peace and I won't harm anyone, but…if you or anyone else come close to me ever again or hurt innocent people, especially people that are very close to us, I'm going to hunt you down and once I found you, you'll scream for mercy! For this I give you my word. The word of a Neph'arim!"
Ending the speech by squeezing the radio together with her bank card and Mikey's credit card into a tiny ball of junk, Chloe shouldered her backpack again and vanished in the shadows of the night.
5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon
Arcadia Bay Harbor
The words of this message from 6 months ago were still swirling inside his head. This voice; this more than unearthly voice even haunted him in his dreams. He'd seen a lot in his life. Death and decay. Crimes against every form of humanity and morality. He'd seen hell on earth. But this voice. From the first moment Sanders had heard this voice he knew that he'd messed with the devil himself. This girl had already killed 6 of his men in a most gruesome way in merely seconds. Men, who had been trained to go through hell and back without a scratch. He knew that if this operation would fail, not even the Lord could safe them.
"Sir, they're moving!" a soldier in front of a screen informed the Colonel, bringing him back from his deep thoughts.
"Alright, men, we entered the hot phase. Keep tracking them! Extraction Team?"
"This is Echo Tango, we're in position." it chimed from the speakers.
"Good! Everybody on standby!"
Sanders gave Mr. Wilcock one glimpse from the corner of his eye. Everybody knew what went wrong last time. It had been a mistake to kill the woman, because it provoked her. Obviously, the girl had been unaware of her powers until they literally forced her to use them. Six men died because of one dead woman. They won't repeat this mistake. Not tonight.
The Caulfield's house
With squealing tires the ATV slid around the curve and up the driveway, directly into the garage where it came to a sudden halt as Chloe hit the breaks hard. The engine died and the bluenette jumped from the vehicle, ripping off the helmet as soon as her feet touched the ground.
"Whoohoo! That was hella awesomesauce!" she cheered, walking up and down because her body was still flooded with adrenaline. "Damn, I bet we broke at least a dozen traffic regulations…and I don't even have a license!"
A wide smile on her face, Max was leaning against the ATV and watched her girlfriend. "Believe me, Chlo, there are far worse drivers in this town. I think you did pretty well. Besides," She pushed herself from the vehicle and walked over to Chloe with slow, seductive steps. As her arms softly embraced the bluenette's body, Max bit down on her bottom lip and whispered into her ear. "Bad girls make me hella hot!"
Staring at the small, giggling brunette, Chloe gulped and her body frozen. Before she knew what was happening, Max's lips crashed on hers for a wild tongue play.
"You…Me…My bedroom…Now!" moaned Max between the kisses and they slowly made their way to Max's bedroom, not willing to break the contact.
Max barely managed to press the switch which closed the garage door. The girl's shoes flew wildly in different corners before they went upstairs. At the top Max dropped her jacket and Chloe her open button shirt. As they had entered Max's room, she wasn't able to close the door, but instead gave Chloe a push and let her fall onto the bed.
A nightlight painted the entire room into a warm orange, illuminating the two heavy breathing girl's. For a long moment, Max and Chloe stared at each other with lustful gazes.
Slowly, Max unbuttoned her shirt and let it slide from her skinny arms. Under it, she only wore a white sports bra. Next, she unzipped her short skirt and let it drop, too. Then she stripped off her tights, revealing her pink panties.
"Damn, y-you're so hella sexy!" spoke Chloe with a dry mouth and a dropped jaw as her eyes scanned the bare skin of her girlfriend.
Once more, Max closed in with slow, but this time slight nervous, steps. Her small, trembling hands brushed over Chloe's body, beginning from her legs, up under her top, moving it upwards until, eventually, it was taken off. Leaving a trail of wet kisses, Max made her way down again and as she reached the bluenette's waistline, she unbuckled and unbuttoned her blue jeans and stripped it off, too, before she continued her way.
Max continued her kissing treatment for Chloe's entire body, using her girlfriend's moaning as an indicator for sensitive spots. Whenever Chloe's moaning intensified, Max gave this special spot a bit more attention. But as the small brunette realized that Chloe was on the edge, she stopped and focused her lips on the blunette's lips again.
"F-fuck, Max! I-I want you…please…" groaned Chloe loudly in lust as she pressed Max closer. Now the last garments landed on the floor and both girls, now entirely naked, kissed intensively and explored their bodies, their moaning growing louder and louder with every stroke and every grind, until it peaked in soft, lustful screams of relief.
Not far away from the Caulfield's house
For hours they were now sitting here, waiting for orders to finally strike. Stransky knew about waiting. He already waited an awful lot in his life. During his time in the army he had to wait for the congress to finally make up their mind. As a mercenary he had to wait for his contractor to finally pay his price. And now he had to wait again.
Waiting was a waste of time. Time, in which he could've killed a lot of people and end the mission. He wasn't a saint or world safer. He knew that. He was the product of a world that needed men who were willing to do what had to be done; even if it meant to kill children. War was hell and Stransky saw himself not as a devil; no, that would just be pretentious; but more as a demon. He wouldn't even call himself evil, because the definition of evil always depended from the point of view. So, he was what he was, an eradicator of unworthy human life.
This, however, was contradicted by the fact that he had to use taser bullets tonight. Stransky had read the reports about the other two teams. KIA in merely seconds and the chances were high that history would repeat itself tonight. He didn't want to go like this. No, sir! Maybe a bullet through the head. Yeah, that would be a nice way to go. But ripped into pieces? That was just fucked up. So, he had to make sure that this wouldn't happen tonight.
Stransky unloaded his MP7, took a fresh magazine from a secret compartment of his combat vest and reloaded gun.
"Stransky, what are you doing?" hissed one of the other two soldiers of the extraction team.
"Puttin' some real bullets in that gun, boy." he answered nonchalantly, not even rising his sight.
"We're not allowed to use life ammo!" protested the other soldier, who startled as he had Stransky's gun aiming at his face a second later.
"Listen, pal, you saw the pictures. If these toy bullets don't work, you'll be more than happy if I end your misery and kill this bitch!"
"Echo Tango, come in!", it chimed from the radio.
"Echo Tango here!"
"The target stays at the girl's house. Move there and take position!"
"Copy that!" Stransky answered, hiding his excitement, "You heard the man, let's move out!"
The Caulfield's house
"Chloe?" Max asked softly. She was lying on the side, her head resting on Chloe's shoulder while her hand drew soft lines over her silky skin.
"Hmm?" the bluenette hummed, gazing hat the ceiling as she was lying on her back, her right hand brushing through Max's messy brown hair.
"You never told me about your time after you left the orphanage."
Out of a sudden, Chloe stopped to stroke the brunette's hair, even stopped to breathe. But not because the question made her angry, no. More than once she thought about telling Max everything. But was now the right time? This whole evening had been more than awesome and going into another dark detail of her past wouldn't exactly lighten her mood. So, Chloe decided to skip this topic for now.
"I wanna tell you, Max, but…but not tonight, 'kay?"
"Okay." Max simply replied, grabbing Chloe's other hand and intertwined their fingers, "I really love you, y'know. Not just some crush, I…I don't know…it's like there's a bond between us."
Feeling a warm wave of deep love rushing through her body, Chloe inhaled deeply and pressed her girlfriend even closer. "I love you, too! Like crazy!"
A long moment of comforting silence occurred, only broken by Chloe's sudden giggling.
"Dude, we're so lucky that your mom isn't home."
"Yeah," Max scoffed, "It would've been slight awkward in the morning."
"Do your folks even know that you're dating girls?"
"Mh-hm, my mom caught me and Vicky in bed when I was sixteen. Gosh, that was so embarrassing, way more embarrassing than the time she caught me masturbating."
Staring at her girlfriend with eyes wide open, Chloe's heart began to beat faster as she realized that they started to talk about Max's sex-life.
"Okay, lemme get this straight. You had a gf and still rubbed yourself one?"
"So?" Max replied, now gazing at Chloe with a frown.
"I'm just saying, you must've been very active and kinda careless if your mom caught you all the time."
"Three times a week, if you need to know. And yes, when I'm horny I tend to forget my surroundings," answered Max with a huff, lying her head back down. Suddenly, The brunette's hand was guided down, right between Chloe's legs, where it instantly began its work.
"I'm ready for round number two now. How about you?" Chloe spoke softly with some moans.
Max didn't even bother to give an answer. She just shuffled her body closer and planted some kisses on the bluenette's breasts. A loud thud downstairs, however, let both girls stop immediately.
"Dammit!" Max said with a sigh and slowly got up, while Chloe gazed at girlfriend.
"Something wrong, Maxi?"
"Nah, probably just our stupid cat, vandalizing the living room. Better throw her out before she pukes all over the place again and mom gets a seizure. I'll be back in a minute."
Giving her girlfriend one last hot kiss for the time of her absence, Max stood up, put on her panties and a T-Shirt, and made her way downstairs.
Due to the street lamps it wasn't really pitch-black throughout the house so that Max didn't need to turn the lights on. Her body still filled with hormones and her head entirely thinking about how to treat Chloe after she returned, the brunette slowly went down the steps, not realizing that someone stood at the bottom of the stairs. Only as she raised her gaze she was startled, but before Max was able to make a sound, three silenced shots chimed and the world went dark.
"Echo Tango, you have a go!"
Finally! Finally some action! The waiting was over and it was time for the kill. Stransky knew that he wasn't supposed to kill someone, but where would be the fun if there wasn't at least one single corpse?
They had already taken care of the lock, so that they only had to push open the front door quietly. The third man had probably done the same procedure with the backdoor. With cautious but quick steps they entered the house. Everything went like in the books until a loud thud chimed behind Stransky. He turned around, gun up and ready, only to realize that his comrade had stumbled over a combat boot that was lying on the floor. Idiot!
Then he heard some female voices upstairs, a moment later someone was moving. Now he needed to react or else the mission would turn FUBAR. Stransky turned, signaled the two man – the one from the backdoor had already joined them – to stand back, and took position at the stairs. And then he saw her. She was skinny, beautiful, had freckles. Oh how Stransky loved girls with freckles. And though the world was painted green by the NVGs, he saw that she had slight pale skin with slightly blushed cheeks.
The girl, clearly with her mind somewhere else, finally looked at him. He saw the life in her widening eyes, the growing fear, the need to scream. That was the right moment; the moment he wanted to remember his victims.
With delight, Stransky squeezed the trigger of his silenced gun three times. He just wanted to be on the safe side. And now came the real metamorphosis. The change from fear to shock to realization and finally, the break. The girls eyes rolled back as they were closing, her body went limp and she fell. Now she was perfect.
"Tango eliminated." he reported with a wry, satisfied smile that nobody could see under his mask.
Arcadia Bay Harbor
"What do you mean with Tango eliminated?" Sanders blurted into the radio, only to receive silence.
"He iced the small brunette, Sir." came the answer some moments later from one of the other soldiers of the extraction team.
"GODDAMMIT!" the Colonel yelled, ripping one of the monitors from its place and threw it through the entire room. Furiously he turned towards Wilcock, who just looked at him emotionlessly while Sean Prescott beside him jumped. "I told you! I fucking told you that this asshole's a fucking psycho!"
The old man simply ignored Sander's outbreak and calmly spoke into the radio. "Proceed. Search the house and find the target."
Just shaking his head, Sanders walked up and down to control his anger. How could this happen? Everything had been perfectly planned and now it went to shit because of one trigger-happy psychopath.
"She's not here, Sir." it chimed through the radio and everyone in the room gazed at each other.
Instantly, Sanders took over again. "Repeat, soldier!"
"The target's not here, Sir. We found some of her clothes but that's it. She's gone."
For another moment the Colonel and Mr. Wilcock shared a long glare, before he gazed at a soldier on a monitor. "Track her Omega-Waves. Thermalscans. Everything. She can't be that far."
"Uhm…Sir." the soldier on the screen said nervously, "I can't track her. The sensors are going haywire."
The Colonel walked over to his workstation and looked at the monitor. Whole Arcadia Bay was painted blue and sometimes entirely covered by white noise. He shared another glimpse with Wilcock and both knew that the mission had failed and that there was only one thing left to do. "Echo Tango, exfiltrate! Take the girl with you."
"Sir, yes, Sir!"
Then, he addressed everyone in the room. "Alright, men, you know the drill. Pack everything up, we'll leave in 30 minutes. So, move it!"
Suddenly, the whole room came to a hectic life. Light's were turned on, things were packed and orders yelled. Wilcock was about to leave as Sean Prescott grabbed him by his shoulder. "Hey! What do you mean with pack everything up? This monster's still out there. What if she goes rampage in my town?"
"Mr. Prescott," the old man said calmly, brushing Sean's hand off his shoulder like some dirt, "So far she only killed the people who attacked her. We took away the only thing that kept her here, so we think that she will leave this town soon. Now, go home and give the Board your report. Good evening, Mr. Prescott."
Above Arcadia Bay
The fresh breeze of the night played with her blue-glowing hair and tugged on Max's blue shirt she'd thrown over before she left. A flood of blue shining tears emerged from her glowing eyes, ran over her cheeks and dripped towards the earth as she watched from her high position how Max's body was loaded into a truck.
Her fists clenched and her entire body was overflowing with anger and Omega-Energy. She would've loved to burn this whole town to cinder, but what would be the use of thousands of dead people if you only want to catch a few who were hunting her; who hurt Max.
No, now the time had come to turn the tables. This time she would wait. Wait like a hunter. She would wait until they'd lead her to their lair and then…well, then there would only be one thing left to do: taking vengeance!