Mastery : 22

Moonlight bathed the field in a soft glow. The grass was crunchy with frost and my breath hung in the air in thick clouds.

I knew this place. I recognized the backside of the apartment complex just up ahead with its row of bushes. The park stood behind me across the field, dark and silent. The swings were fixed in place despite the light breeze.

"Newt." Multiple voices said together and I turned to look back at the apartment complex. Four people stepped out of the building's shadow and stopped in front of me in a line. Lizzy on the far left, then Thomas, Colin, and mom.

Lizzy was bleeding from a gunshot wound in her chest. Her blood stained through her shirt and dripped onto the frozen ground. Thomas stood motionless, his arms at his sides as he stared at me. Colin was extremely pale and held one hand over his chest, blood seeping between his fingers and running down his arm. Mom was skin and bones. She wore a hospital gown and had an IV taped to her arm. Everyone but Thomas moved forward at once, encircling me.

"You did it on purpose." Colin said in a raspy whisper. He slowly walked behind me and mom took his place.

"The games will know what to do with you."

"Why didn't you come?" I looked over at Lizzy and her shaky steps. I couldn't say anything. I couldn't move. They continued walking around me in a small circle. And then a shadow passed over us as the moon was briefly blocked. A wraith was coasting on massive black wings and getting closer.

The wind from the creature's back beating wings rushed over me. Mom, Lizzy, and Colin fell away from me, dissipating into black dust. The wraith landed just behind Thomas, but he didn't move. His dark brown eyes just held mine as the wraith slowly walked up behind him until its large, rectangular head hovered just above his right shoulder. It stopped and stared at me with bright, green eyes, its long, forked tail swishing slowly. A cloud slowly moved in front of the moon and the light dimmed. And Thomas' eyes slowly began to glow the same icy green as the monster.

The rattle of the chain hoist ripped me back to reality. I jumped upright on my bed and immediately regretted it. Pain pulsed through my skull and behind my eyes. I squinted through the pain and saw Thomas stumble into the cage. The door slammed down behind him and the guard briskly left.

Thomas slowly lowered himself onto his bed and held the edge of the thin mattress with both hands. His head hung low like he was concentrating.

"What's wrong?" I stood, fighting back a wave of nausea, and sat down next to him. His eyes were skewed shut in pain.

"They drugged us." He panted and slowly opened his eyes. "I woke up strapped down to a gurney and they were…doing something." He reached his hand up and touched his left collarbone. The fabric of his shirt bulged and stained there. I pulled down the collar of his shirt.

A shunt had been put in place. A thick, plastic tube stitched into his skin and capped off. Dried blood crusted the purple skin around it.

"They're bleeding him." Alby said and my head whipped up to stare at him.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Some hybrids don't have venom, but their blood contains the enzyme to make it." He said slowly.

"That would explain the dizziness…" Thomas said weakly. His arms shook as he gripped the mattress tighter. I stood up and slowly pushed him down on the bed, pulling the thin blanket over him.

"He said he would find a way to use him." I sat down on my own bed. Thomas had already passed out. I moved my tail into my lap and lightly ran my fingers over the metal tail lock. It felt sore and irritated. Had they collected my venom at the same time?

The weather hadn't let up. The calm night had given way to an angry morning. A frigid breeze blew through the bars of the cage, bringing water and mud with it. The concrete floor had several puddles forming and our blankets were dappled with brown and gray. Seeing as how we were all still locked up, the director must be waiting for the storm to pass.

I lay on my side and watched Thomas sleep. His side slowly rose and fell peacefully. My mind kept returning to the strange dream. The frozen field, mom, Lizzy, Colin, the wraith.

I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and blinked back a few tears. They were all dead, and I had caused them all. Except Thomas. Why had he been there? I rolled over onto my other side so I was looking through the other cages. Brenda lay on her bed slowly tracing the bars with her hand absentmindedly.

What were you talking about before? About a virus?

She paused and glanced over at me. No one has told you about it?

Just talk.

It's called a virus, but it isn't really. Think of it as evolution on fast forward. A small organism attaches itself to a host and copies its DNA, then jumps to a new host.

What kind of host?

Anything alive, really. Brenda traced the bars again, wiping the water from them. It takes the DNA it stole from its previous host, and inserts them into its new one. It's how you get freaks of nature like wraiths and Radix vines.

So those things are just patchworks of other creatures? My eyes were growing wider as I imagined a wraith. The wings of a massive bird of prey, the build of a panther, snake fangs and venom in a tail, and hyena jaws.

Exactly. Radix vines have the traits of carnivorous plants, orchids, weeping willows, and fungi.

My mind was working overtime to make sense of all this. And it can jump into any living thing?

Yep, it's swept through every species we know of.

Telepathy! I seized the thought. No living thing has the ability of telepathy. My mom said that only wraiths can do it.

That's the scariest part… Brenda folded her hands over her chest and stared up at the metal sheeting. The virus got into humans, obviously, that's how you and I came to be. But telepathy is the direct result of the virus. It is the virus. WICKED thinks that the virus is trying to learn human intelligence, it's the trait it's after in our species.

So me talking to you…

Brenda looked over at me. It's not you. It's the virus communicating with itself. But we can tap into that ability and use it.

My mouth dropped open. Telepathy was just a creature communicating with other members of its species. Humans were able to manipulate it to their benefit. Then another thought floated up.

Can the virus do the same thing? Can it use our intelligence, manipulate it?

Yes, that's what they call a breakthrough case. It's very rare though, human intelligence is extremely complex. But in some people, the virus takes over your mind. It warps your thoughts, makes you do things you wouldn't normally do. But you're still conscious through all of it, trapped in your own mind as the virus masters human intelligence.

But if it wants our intelligence, what will it do with it?

We don't know.