REND

Eloyce University was practically a small town at the outer edge of La Esperanza. I wasn’t exactly the touring type so I hadn't seen much of it. The only time I visited other colleges was for administrative stuff or if I needed to use their library because I couldn’t find specific reference material at Cresthorne.

Cresthorne and Melchor were at opposite ends of the university grounds. We had to ride one of those golf cart thingies the campus security patrol use.

I had been to Melchor Hall only twice before. The first time was for pre-enrollment—we were required to pass a basic Eloyce Field test. The second was during our campus tour, orientation week. I never stepped foot on Melchor Hall since again; all my classes were at Cresthorne. In our third year, we'd be required electives at Melchor, so I didn't expect to go back there until then.

During the ride, I shot questioning looks at Deen. What was this about? I thought hard, hoping to reach her mind.

“Sir?” Deen finally said. “Did they find Kelsey?”

“Do you mean the missing girl? Is that her name? I don’t think so,” said the Melchor dude. He probably introduced himself to us at some point, but I didn’t care enough to process it.

Deen gave a small sigh of relief, visibly relaxing her tensed shoulders. She probably had thought they found Kelsey’s body, mutated and all monster-like, and now they suspected the Adumbrae has begun seeding people here. That ‘people’ being me and Deen for a start.

Concerning for sure, but if they actually found an Adumbrae who has started mutating, they would've shut down the school pronto. This place would be already crawling with police and BID agents.

We were safe. Probably?

Which brings back the question: why did they want us at Melchor?

I dug the nail of my thumb into my index finger. My trimmed nail had a hard time wounding my skin. It did leave a bright red line which throbbed a bit. At least that meant I wasn’t seeded by an Adumbrae…I hope. I wasn’t hearing any spooky voices either.

The pressing concern was people peeking into my head during Eloyce Field tests.

I knew I wasn’t normal...mentally. I didn’t care for people very much, or at all.

I know, I know, people usually don’t care for others either. If everyone did care, we'd already be a utopia, no wars, no hunger. The world would be filled with peace, love, and understanding, kum ba yah.

I meant something else. If Deen suddenly fell dead right now, in front of me, two things would cross my mind. The first would be that it was really funny I saw two people dying on the same day. And, second, that it was going to be such a hassle as I'd certainly be investigated for being around two people dying on the same day.

Not sure what a normal person would think in that hypothetical situation, but it probably wouldn't be the same as me.

I had no idea how my Eloyce Field looked compared to others. That was why I was nervous when they tested me during pre-enrollment, the only time I felt nervous for the past, I dunno, decade or so. It was as if a face was forcibly removed and I couldn’t do anything about it.

About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at Melchor Hall, a three-story building with that cubey-spherical minimalist design, whatever the architectural term for that was. The students hanging out at the entrance gave us strange looks as we went up the steps.

Eloyce University didn't require a specific uniform, neither did the individual colleges and institutes within. Melchor students, however, usually sported a pin of their six-winged eagle crest. Elitist much. You would think the Cresthorne law students would be the elitist bunch at Eloyce.

Melchor dude ushered Deen and me to a waiting room. He explained to us that they were still preparing the test since it was on short notice.

A woman was already sitting inside. Her hair was dyed metallic blue and fell across her face, hiding it. When she heard us walking in, she brushed back her bangs revealing puffy eyes and a red nose. An eagle pin was on her chest. She looked a couple of years older than Deen and me and seemed vaguely familiar. She cleared her throat and managed to mumble, “Hello”, as she dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief.

“Um, hi. I’m Amber and this is Erind.”

I raised my hand. “Hi.”

“Are you okay?” asked Deen.

Come on, girl, I exasperatedly thought. This was the second time today she asked someone if they were okay—the first one didn’t do us much good. She should learn to stop asking people that.

The woman answered, “I...I’m fine. You must be the ones who last saw my sister. I heard they fetched you.” Her voice was shaky at the start, but she composed herself. “My name is Myra. Myra Fletcher.”

“Fletcher?” Deen said. “Oh, Kelsey Fletcher. You must be her sister. I’m so sorry.”

I didn’t know what she was saying sorry for. Because we didn’t stop Myra's sister from diving into the ocean? Or was that a condolence type of sorry? The first one placed the blame on us and the second sort of implied Kelsey was dead. Deen might mean the first one. I didn’t like the sound of it either way.

“I hope she’s found soon,” I said, so Myra wouldn’t get the wrong impression of us.

“I hope so too,” said Myra. Upon closer examination, she did look a lot like her sister, almost like they were twins. The striking blue hair threw me off when I first saw her.

Deen sat beside her and held her hand as a show of sympathy. “They’ll find her. I’m sure of it,” she said. She was such a natural at this it made me envious for a second I couldn’t feel that kind of emotion.

Just a bit...

Kind of like how I sometimes envied my cousin who could eat a level ten spicy ramen. But when I think about it, I was fine with just normal ramen. Same feelings here.

“It’s my…” Myra shook her head. “What did happen? They only told me Kelsey jumped out the window of the law cafeteria and they couldn’t find her.”

“That was it,” I said. “I usually hang out at the cafeteria early morning because it's quiet. Deen here, I mean Amber Deen, came to meet me before going to our first period. We were surprised Kelsey rushed to the window.”

“Can you tell me anything else? How she looked? What she was wearing?”

“She appeared kind of sickly. Her hair was a mess like she just awoke and hadn’t fixed her hair yet. And she was wearing…” I turned to Deen. “What was she wearing?”

“Blue shirt with a cartoon drawing. Pants. Maybe pajamas? I remember the sound of slippers on the cafeteria floor when she ran.”

Myra focused on the ground as she mumbled, “How could she get here when she didn’t take the car? We’re far from a bus sto—” She stopped herself and all of us sat in silence for a minute. She then said, barely a whisper, “I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say this, but they suspect my sister of being an Adumbrae."

"What?"

"Huh?"

Myra motioned for us to quiet down. "Kelsey has a disease...terminal. We went to the hospital a lot last year, her condition was deteriorating. And then she started to get well.”

“Isn’t that good?” Deen said.

“Like a miracle.”

“There are no miracles,” I said, perhaps insensitively.

Myra nodded. “No miracles. The doctors suspected she was getting seeded. But they weren’t able to test her because she stopped coming to the hospital. I fear that…” She trailed off.

“That’s not good,” said Deen, her voice quivered slightly with worry. And I agreed with her. This wasn’t good at all. She leaned closer to Myra and asked, “Does that mean there’s a chance we’re in danger?”

“I don’t think so. If you just met her once then there’s no problem really.”

“Yes, only once,” I said echoing her. But the circumstances surrounding that meeting were very problematic. If what Myra was telling us was true, then Kelsey might've been losing herself to the Adumbrae at the cafeteria. Judging from Deen’s expression, she was also thinking along the same lines.

“But…”

“But what?”

“There’s a chance the stress from witnessing my sister attempted suicide might get a false positive on the tests.”

Hmmm...I didn't think that'd be a problem for me because I certainly didn’t care enough about Kelsey, or anyone else, to be affected mentally. I also noticed Myra used the phrase ‘attempted suicide.’ Props for the optimism, but, girl, I think your sister's attempt was successful.

“What then?” Deed said. “What will happen if we get a false positive?”

“More tests that will end up with nothing. Happens here all time, trust me." Myra got something from the bag on her lap, a small black pouch. "However, there might be a problem if they found something...wrong...with Kelsey. You guys understand what I'm getting at?” She opened the pouch. Inside were vials containing blue liquid.

“And those are?”

“I got this from my boyfriend, he’s a resident assistant here." She went off to explain a bunch of science stuff my law school brain wanted to shut out. Then she said, "Taking these can calm down brain activity so your Eloyce Field won’t get disturbed as much. If you take these, you'll surely be cleared now and won't have any problems in the future if...I mean when...when they find my sister. I don't want you guys having more trouble because of me...my sister.”

Deen was about to say something but went back into her deep thought.

“Is this safe?” I asked. Did her boyfriend steal these from the Melchor labs? There was a big scandal last year because a group of BAU students stole equipment and chemicals from their university to make meth or some shit.

“Yes, very safe,” Myra said. “You see, sometimes, we students here at Melchor have to visit Adumbrae research institutions. We all have to be tested after each time. If we get a false positive, we'll get monitored, more tests. To avoid that, some students take these if they know someone who can procure one.”

Deen glared at the vials with furrowed brows. “Is that so?”

I bet, like me, she also suspected Myra had assumed we witnessed something that made us believe her story about Kelsey but didn't want to admit it. We were quite accepting of Kelsey being an Adumbrae actually; other people would've questioned it more. I was half-sure Myra’s offer to keep us clean was genuine. But then again, I was fully sure I wouldn’t have any problems about my mind getting disturbed by witnessing someone kill herself.

I should just wait for Deen’s reaction. My face was her best friend and—it pained me to admit this—sort of sidekick, so I should follow her lead. The Rules had to be kept despite a bit of disturbance.

However, if I was going to do something possibly illegal, I wanted to make sure I could blame someone else.

Someone like Myra and Deen.

I instinctively reached into my pocket, unlocked my phone, and navigated to the record option. I practiced this more than a dozen times already and I could do it without looking. This was why I usually wore clothes with roomy pockets. No way I could do it wearing skinny jeans—those barely had pockets.

“Truth be told," said Myra, "I never took them for that reason. It was after I noticed weird things about Kelsey that I asked my boyfriend to try to, um, borrow, a few vials for me. And now, I’m offering you this. Think of it as an apology.”

Deen and I looked at each other.

"My family would be angry if I'm connected to Adumbrae," Deen mumbled to herself. "What to do?"

“Will it hurt?” I asked Myra. “Like what would happen if we drank that?”

“You won’t feel anything at all. I know because I’ve tried it.”

Deen said, “Does this have any long-term effects?”

“Nothing you should worry about,” Myra assured her. “It'll get flushed out of your system in a day or so. Look, I’m going to take it. You guys pick one each first and then also pick one for me. That way you’ll be sure these are all safe.”

Deen picked three vials and held them out for us. I took the left one, Deen took the right one, leaving the middle one for Myra.

“I'm truly sorry you guys were pulled into this mess," said Myra. "This is the least I could do.” She twisted the cap off her vial and drank it. “You guys should take it before the testing. They’re just waiting for a professor to oversee the tests and classes are about to end.”

As if on cue, Melchor dude opened the door. We hid the vials. “Ms. Fletcher,” he said. “You’ll be going first.”

After Myra left, Deen opened her vial.

“You’re going to drink it?” I said, bringing my vial to eye level. It didn’t look anything special. It was going to be funny if this turned out to be liquid meth or some other drugs.

“I…uh. Yes.”

“Eh? Why?”

“This isn't about getting a false positive. I hate to assume the worst, but Kelsey might be—” She pressed her lips together and glanced at the door.

“She probably is,” I said. Unless this was an elaborate setup by a gag show on tv, Kelsey was positively becoming an Adumbrae. Annoying shit, bothering my life.

"As Myra said, when they find her sister, eyes will be on us too. But if we’re clear now, then—"

“I’m sure we’re clear.” Actually, I wasn’t. I knew jack shit about Admubrae seeding. Even experts couldn’t accurately predict it. We might be infected.

“If we aren't affected—” Deen shook her head to clear her mind. “Bottomline is, I simply won't accept a record of being connected with Adumbrae. I want this over and done. My parents will kill me if our family gets dragged into something embarrassing. How about you?”

“Same with me too.” Best friend Erind reporting for duty.

“If it’s just a question of being stressed and messing up a machine's reading, I wouldn’t worry. This is completely something else. And both of us are in this together.”

“Yep, we are.” I shook the vial. My peaceful life would be ruined if something stupid happened like my Eloyce Field showed up disturbed, and I just happened to be with a person that was starting to get seeded. I agreed with Deen. Fucking hell really if they find Kelsey’s body and it’s mutated.

“Let’s just get through this,” Deen said. “We’ll be fine. Myra drank it too.” Before I could say anything more, she downed the contents of the vial.

“Wait!” I said. “Ah! You really drank it.” She swallowed, blinked a few times, then looked at me. “Are you okay?” I asked, then I bit my lip. Shit, now it was me who asked someone if they were okay.

“I feel fine, a bit tingly, but fine.”

“Really?” I stared doubtfully at her empty vial.

“See, nothing happened to me. Drink yours too. Better safe than sorry.”

“Isn’t it funny the safe option is the drinking-unknown-liquid one?”

“I’m not sure if this works as Myra explained, but I would do anything to avoid the BID.”

"I don't think I'll drink it," I loudly said. Then I reached for my phone to turn off the recording. I wasn’t sure if what I recorded on my phone would be useful if we got busted for doing something illegal. But it was something.

“Well…I. If-if something happens to you, then…” Deen was stammering. I surmised she was trying to avoid saying if I got in trouble she’d be affected too because it sounded selfish. “I mean, we’re friends, you can trust me.”

Ah, the magic words. With the recording off, I quickly said, “Of course, I'll drink it too,” and then downed the contents of the vial I held.

"A complete one-eighty? I, uh, I didn’t want to force you."

I shrugged. "Since we're in this together, I changed my mind." The timid Erind face I had on would surely follow Deen's lead. It was annoying getting trapped by a face. But all in a day’s work.

I didn’t feel anything wrong with myself after drinking the blue liquid. Maybe it was a dud? If it worked as Myra explained, it’d be a huge bonus. But if anything bad happened, at least I did it with Deen. I had leverage in case I needed her to protect me using the connections and influence of her family.

Five minutes or so passed and Deen was called. Alone, I stared out the window at the parking area, wondering what the hell went wrong with my supposedly peaceful day. Then it was finally my turn.

I entered the same place where I got tested before I enrolled here, a grey marble tiled room smelling of antiseptic. Four rectangular machines, about two feet taller than my modest 5’4’’ height, lined the wall opposite the door I entered. There were a bunch of computers at the far end of the room manned by the Melchor dude and two others who were probably fourth-years doing their practicals.

A lady, whose age was betrayed by a few wrinkles straying on her otherwise youthful face and blonde hair that was greying at the roots, stood by the machine. She was a professor and also a researcher of Melchor; I met her before during our orientation tour when she gave us a short speech about the Eloyce Field studies conducted here.

“Good morning, Professor Deslys,” I said, reading the nameplate on her white lab coat.

“Good morning, Ms. Erind.” I must've shown a bit of reaction when she referred to me by my first name because she said, “No need to be anxious. These are simple routine tests given the unfortunate circumstance at hand.” Professor Deslys pushed a few buttons on the machine and gestured to the opening. “Put your left hand here, right hand here, open your palms downward. And then let me adjust the retina scanner. Align your eyes here.”

“Okay, Professor.”

“Keep your eyes open after you feel the pricks. I suppose you have experienced this before?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Barely ant bites,” she said. “Ready? We’ll start.”

My fingers and palm got pricked as if I grabbed a cactus. I knew they were measuring if I was healing like a normal human or I was already starting to mutate, which would happen if I was surrendering my body to super-reality entities. They couldn’t exactly cut people and watch them heal, and it was better to observe the minuscule abnormal regeneration which was the starting sign of seeding. When I felt the prickling stop, I opened my eyes to be scanned.

“That wasn’t too bad now, was it?”

“No, Professor.”

“All normal,” she said, Melchor dude giving her a thumbs up from behind the control panel.

“Could I go now? Or do I still need to do that helmet test?”

“The Field Integrity Test you mean? We will be performing a different test this time, and we need you to sign a waiver.”

“Waiver? What for? Why not that other test.”

“Time for a short lecture,” she said. She cleared a nearby table while Melchor dude, probably her assistant, gave us two chairs. “What do you know about the Eloyce Field?”

“Not much. Isn't it like the manifestation of the human free will?”

“That is the understanding of most people, Ms. Erind. It should suffice for the layman. I assume you've heard about the gestalt subconsciousness? I believe the term the media uses is ‘shared consciousness’? Which is incorrect.”

I nodded my head.

“Humanity has a collective higher dimensional link. Not a hive mind, which is the first thing people think of. Those cheesy Adumbrae infection movies are so misleading. This higher dimensional subconsciousness—a result of our evolution to more intelligent beings—is what the Adumbrae are tapping.”

I nodded again, unsure of where this was going. I only had a somewhat general idea of this. 'Adumbrae bad' was sufficient for me. Actual information, the science mumbo-jumbo about Adumbrae were not common knowledge, the main reason being the government didn’t want people trying to call an Adumbrae themselves. The desire of people for power shouldn’t be underestimated.

Professor Deslys tapped her temple. “While we cannot access our gestalt subconsciousness—hence, the term—it has been proven to exist. It’s on the same…plane—a simple way to put it—as the Adumbrae that try to manifest in our world. Some believe we are but a mere reflection of the true reality, the reality of the Adumbrae.

“I should stop here. I might get into more arguments if someone heard me teaching controversial topics. What’s important is that the Eloyce Field is the manifestation of the human ego, not free will per se. The helmet test you mentioned checks if a person’s Eloyce Field is crumbling. Taking a snapshot for quick analysis.”

This was all going over my head. “Could I just take that test then?”

“It’s practically useless if you ask me. If we detect a crumbling Eloyce Field, it means we're already too late and the Adumbrae has seeded for some time already. These guys here are better.” Professor Deslys pointed to the machine I used earlier. “To be more thorough, we're going to do an Eloyce Field profiling instead. You're a first-year law student, right?”

"Yes, I am."

"I assume you have studied this in your Constitutional Law class? Profiling of the Eloyce Field of a person is—"

"—an invasion of privacy," I continued.

Professor Deslys clapped her hands. "Good girl. Yes, Ms. Erind. Which also means that you..." She waved her hand, gesturing for me to finish her sentence.

"Which means I can refuse," I said, my shoulders slumping at the realization. "And that’s why you need the waiver." This was even worse. I absolutely didn't want my head getting examined by anyone! But I couldn't refuse in this situation even if the Constitution says I could.

Did Deen and Myra do this too?

Shit, what do I do here?