Chapter 1
Sapphire sipped her coffee as she strolled down the icy street, reading her facebook as she walked. On her way home from her last day of school for the semester, she was happy and light-hearted, as she had two weeks of freedom to look forward to. She enjoyed her classes well enough, but philosophy and english and history got tedious over time, and she was excited to have some time for her own projects for a while. She hadn't seen her parents in close to a month, and the latest crunch for finals had forced her to ignore her friends in favour of studying.
But now, it was all over. She could relax, catch up on her shows, work on the novella she wanted to write, maybe go see a movie or two with her friends.
As she scrolled down her Facebook feed, her phone had a moment of lag before it popped up that she was receiving a phone call.
Clover Medical Clinic displayed urgently on her screen, and for a second she was confused as to why they were calling her. She'd gone in a few weeks prior for a routine check-up, but it had gone fine, no anomalies, nothing wrong.
She swiped to answer. They wouldn't be calling without reason.
"Hello?"
"Is this Sapphire Nelson?"
"Yes it is," she replied politely.
"Hi Ms. Nelson, this is Jessica calling from the Clover Medical Clinic, can I please get some information for security purposes?"
"Uh, sure."
"What's your birth date and middle name?"
"October 17th, 1990. Middle name is Gloria."
"Thank you so much, one moment." The receptionists voice was sickeningly sweet and professional. It was irrational, but Sapphire immediately disliked her.
"Thank you for your patience," she said, "I've got some blood-work here back from the lab, and Doctor Singh would like to discuss it with you. When would you like to make an appointment?"
Blood work. Of course. Sapphire remembered now, they had drawn blood as a part of the check-up, but it had been such a non-event that she had forgotten about it.
"Is something wrong? Can't you just tell me now?"
"I'm sorry, we can't discuss confidential matters over the telephone."
Sapphire ground her teeth. It wasn't a huge inconvenience to make an appointment, nor was it difficult to get to the office, as it was just down the street from her apartment, but she had been looking forward to doing nothing adult for at least a week.
"But you just verified that I am who I say I am."
"Yes, with information that many people surely know, and regardless it is still policy not to discuss confidential information over the phone." There was a definite edge to the receptionist's voice now. Sapphire decided not to push further. She sighed audibly.
"I'm free for the next two weeks. Whenever Dr. Singh is free I can come in. Just not in the mornings, It's my vacation, and I want to sleep in."
"Of course, understandable," the woman said, and Sapphire heard some rustling on the other line.
She reached an intersection, and the noise of traffic forced her to push the phone against her ear, and plug the other with her coffee holding and after she pressed the signal to walk.
"Actually Ms. Nelson, we have an opening this afternoon at 3pm, we had a cancellation, and Dr. Singh is free then."
Sapphire pulled the phone away to check the time. 2:24. She had more than enough time. She was close enough to home that she could easily drop off her backpack and finish her coffee before ducking back out the visit the doctors.
"Done. I'll be there."
"Wonderful," she said, her high pitch grating on Sapphires nerves, "We'll see you then."
"Bye," she hung up the phone and sighed again. At least she was getting the visit out of the way now, rather than interrupting her precious leisure time later in the week, but she was still miffed that she had to take any time away from it. She had plans to curl up in bed and read for the rest of the afternoon before she went out to dinner with her friend. Now she'd have only enough time to get home and have a shower after her appointment before she had to head down to the restaurant.
It was a short walk home, fuelled by irritation, and once through the door to her small suite, she tossed her backpack in a heap to her couch, and flopped on the cushioned next to it, to grumpily finish drinking her coffee before leaving again. She didn't bother with taking her shoes or jacket off, though she did quickly fix her skewed and loose ponytail.
Her apartment was small, just a one bedroom with hardly any kitchen, and a tiny bathroom without even a bathtub. Her living room was acceptable, enough space for a couch, coffee table and a rocking chair that had once been her Opa's, but that was about it. She was lucky enough to have her parents paying her rent, while her student loan paid for school itself. The frugal apartment let her spend a bit more of her living expenses that came with her loan on her hobbies, and let her eat out more often with her working friends who didn't have to budget as much as she did. It was an acceptable trade off, even if she did get frustrated sometimes trying to cook with limited counter-space, or when all sh really wanted was a long, relaxing bath, but she made do. It could be worse.
She checked the clock on her phone, 2:51. Time to go. She'd be a few minutes early, and she'd probably still have to wait twenty minutes to actually see the doctor, like usual, but she hated being late. She pulled her purse out of her backpack, slung it over her shoulder cross-wise and headed out the door.
It was a brief walk, which she made even briefer by cutting through an alley between streets. She could either walk all the way down to the light, make two rights and end up on the street behind her apartment building, or she could walk away from the light a half block and take the back-alley, and come out just a minute from the clinic. The alley was a simple car access to the parking lots to a pair or apartment building, and while it was less recommended to walk through there at night (she still did), during the bright, brisk spring afternoon, she felt more than safe making the shortcut. She didn't even contemplate whether or not she should – she just did.
She was halfway down the narrow road, when she heard light, quick footsteps behind her. She glanced backwards to see who was approaching her, and to see which side she should move off to, to let them pass, but was startled as the person behind her was right in her face when she turned.
Sapphire squeaked in surprise, and no little fear, as the man grabbed at her arm. She had never been attacked before, and she clutched her purse close to her reflexively.
The man looked off, but she wasn't sure exactly how, other than his painfully pale skin. Her first thought was that he must be some sort of albino – he had pale, colourless skin, but his eyes were a yellow green and his hair was dark under the baseball hat he wore.
His clothing was odd as well, looking almost like layered black carbon fibre.
"Wait!" He rasped, as she tried to pull away, "It's a trap!"
"Let go of me!" She tried again to pull out of his grip, but his hand gripped tighter, and she was unable to escape.
"You're in danger," he growled, "I'm trying to help you!" He pulled her away from the street, into the parking lot.
A jab of fear ran through her body. She almost couldn't believe it, she'd spent her entire life in this city, and she had never had any truly life threatening encounters. It was a sudden and jarring that she wasn't immune to the dangers of city life.
"Let go of me or I'll scream!" She threatened, trying to sound braver than she felt. He held her with only one hand, but her struggle failed to break away. It suddenly occurred to her that she should probably fight back.
But what if she fought back and made him angry? He was obviously stronger than she was, and she had no idea what his intentions were. Was he just crazy? A rapist? Was he taking her somewhere to mug her out of sight? A million scenarios ran through her head.
He whipped around to face her, his eyes scanning the empty alley. Before she could draw a breath to scream, he pulled a small object out of his jacket and slapped it across her face. She tried to flinch away, but he was faster than she was. The object covered her mouth and held it immobile. With her free hand she grabbed at it, but it was as if he had glued a sheet of plastic on her face. She could still breathe through her nose, but the only sound was a high pitched squeal at the back of her throat.
Now she was ready to fight back. She lunged into him, swinging her free hand in a fist towards his face. It was her off-hand, so it didn't have a lot of weight or aim behind it. He dodged it easily, though he looked surprised that she had taken the swing. He grabbed her arm as she was off balance, and ushered her even more quickly into the dark gap between the houses. She fought the entire time, lashing out with her legs, trying to make any noise. She kicked out at one of those old-school metal garbage cans, trying to knock it over, but he saw what she was doing and yanked her backward and into the air. She missed the can by half an inch.
She was crying now, silent tears running down her face. She was overpowered, and she knew it. She wasn't ready to give up just yet, and continued to struggle, but her strength was waning, and her initial adrenaline rush was wearing off.
He pushed her up against the fake brick siding, and pinned her arms above her head with his left hand.
She pushed as hard as she could against his arm, but he held her easily.
"Stop fighting!" he said, in a low and urgent voice, "I'm not going to hurt you!"
It was true – he hadn't hurt her, unless you counted holding onto her too hard – but she wasn't going to take that as a signal to let him win.
"Let me go!" She tried to yell, though it just came out as 'Mnng Mn Nnn!'
"You said that already," he sighed. "Look, I can let you go, but I am actually here to help you, and I need you to hear me out."
"Mm mnn mngmmn."
He looked her in the eyes, his own yellow-green eyes searching hers. Sapphire noticed that his pupils were actually slitted, like a cats, and there was a tiny metal object implanted on the outside of his eyes on either side. His nose bridge was also strangely wide, his eyes set slightly farther apart than normal. A new wave of fear swept over her. He was some sort of crazy body mutilation rapist, or maybe some deformed homeless person who was going to mug her for her money.
"I've been monitoring you while I waited for the best time to approach you," he started, taking out a small item out of another pocket. It was about the size of an iPhone, but it as a blue-ish silver in colour, and seemed to be completely transparent in the centre. He tapped a silver button on the outside of the device with his thumb, and the 'screen' lit up, showing a small control panel.
She moaned in fear. Worse than a random attack, he was a stalker.
"Did you know your doctors office is closed on Fridays after 2pm?"
She froze. He was right. She hadn't even thought about it, had just gone along with it. She had had trouble scheduling her original appointment last time because her school schedule didn't sync up with their weird hours.
She shook her head. He was just trying to get into her head. They probably changed their hours, and she hadn't known.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Watch."
He pressed a quick series of buttons on the device, then flipped it around so she could see.
It was a video, taken from just outside the medical clinic, through half-closed blinds. Despite the fact that it was taken through a window, she could hear the audio quite clearly.
The interior of the office was dark, all of the lights shut off, except for a small lap at the desk. A woman stood with a phone pressed to her ear. She had a creepy plastic smile as she spoke into the receiver. There were odd notations on the screen, foreign text scrolling along the bottom.
"Is this Sapphire Nelson?"
There was a pause, as the woman stared off into space. A circle formed around the woman's head, and a readout popped up next to it that Sapphire couldn't read.
"Hi Ms. Nelson, this is Jessica calling from the Clover Medical Clinic, can I please get some information for security purposes?"
The woman looked at a device that looked something like the one her captor held, but larger. A box formed around her own tablet object, with more text she couldn't identify.
"What's your birth date and middle name?"
As the woman spoke, what Sapphire could only call a scan line, began to run across the screen. When it got to the woman, she disappeared, being replaced by a grotesque creature that appeared to be an alien.
"Thank you so much, one moment." The alien was very similar to the typical sci-fi 'grey' alien that was in every other alien movie ever. It reached down on lanky pink arm and grabbed a handful of paper, rustling it around to no effect.
"Thank you for your patience," it said, its mouth moving out of sync with the words coming out of it. "I've got some blood work here back from the lab, and Doctor Singh would like to discuss it with you. When would you like to make an appointment?"
He pulled the device away.
"What the hell is this?" She tried to ask angrily, but she had (somehow) forgotten that she was still gagged, and she only succeeded in making muffled angry noises.
"Hold on." He pressed a few more buttons, this time on a wristband on his forearm under his jacket. Sapphire suddenly felt her jaw have some freedom, it was no longer locked in place. She tried to lick her lips, but the gag was still covering her mouth – it was just stretching to accommodate her.
Immediately she tried to scream, taking a deep breath and belting out the loudest, shrillest scream she could muster.
It came out as a whisper. It was like a nightmare, one she had had many times before, where she was being pursued, and tried to run and scream for help – her legs moving like molasses and her voice not working.
She started to shake all over again.
"Hey. Hey," he said, crouching slightly so he could make eye contact with her bowed head. He lifted her chin so she was looking forward.
"I told you I wasn't going to hurt you," he said gruffly, "And now I'm promising you that I won't ever hurt you. I just couldn't let you scream and make a commotion."
"Please let me go," she said, trying to talk in a normal tone of voice, but again, it came out barely above a whisper. "What have you done to me?" She tried, ineffectually, to pull her hands out from under his, but his grip was as firm as ever.
"It's a silencer, and it allows me to completely silence a target, or control the volume in which they speak. I needed a chance to explain all of this to you, without you causing trouble."
He actually looked mildly chagrined as he explained it to her, but all she could think was the word 'Target'. She was his target.
"What was that video?"
"That was a keeper. It had been sent to retrieve you. My employer asked me to find you and bring you to her when the time was opportune, and also to protect you from the keepers, of whom she is not affiliated with."
"What did it – and you – want with me?"
He smiled, smirked more like, a flash of fang visible behind his white lips.
"Well, the keepers employer likely wants to kill you. My employer, her majesty, wants to rescue you – and maybe even ally with you."
"Ally? Rescue? Kill?! What the hell is going on? Let me go!"
He sighed. "All right, I can see this isn't going to work. I don't want to hurt you, but this is for your own good."
"What?!"
He released her pinned arms, but before she could even think about making a run for it, she felt a sharp pinprick in her neck, and her whole world went dark.