Preface

Spotlights fill the sky, searching for planes, anything to shoot down. A hawk and its mate are mistaken for sniper planes and are picked off. With a cry they circle downward in concentric circles. Wings touching and breaking apart again and again as if reaching towards the other. Finally the bodies collide; and as they hold on to each other, their combined weight pulls down towards and to the earth. The spotlights continue their search of the skies, but they won't find us there.

They will search sky and land with all their might, take the world apart tree by tree, but they'll never find us there.

We are in the sea.

Chapter 1 – The Setting

Two guards walk down a steel hallway, heels clacking angrily in their haste to reach the held. Florescent lighting sets a harsh light over the men, their features exaggerated in brusqueness and ferocity. Eyes not too clouded with crudeness to ignore the slight movement in the shadows. A guard pauses to glance back, but seeing nothing continues down the hall.

The stainless steel hall leads the guards to a large titanium door, through which they enter after the usual retina and fingertip scan. Those within the held already turn their attention towards the newcomers.

"Well?" one of them asks, "what have you found? Anything?"

"Donaldson!" Barks the commanding officer, "If they have anything to say, they certainly aren't going to tell you! Don't you have a security camera to go repair?"

Donaldson grumbles in his chair, but doesn't move.

"Out Donaldson!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm going!" And out scurries Donaldson.

The two guards remain stationary as if they had not just been witness to a grown man's temper tantrum.

The officer who had barked at Donaldson, Colonel Davis, always called Colonel, now strode towards them.

"Well now Stevenson, Roberts. Let's have it."

"Yes Sir," Stevenson replied, "we searched the whole ship starting with the south end and working our way towards the north. All the doors, including the ones that lead to the stairwell, were locked. We unlocked doors only to lock them behind us. We swept each floor, starting with the basement and working up to this top floor. The only room we couldn't check was the sound-proof chamber in the center of the bottom floor-"

"If you couldn't get in that chamber, there's no possibility he could," snapped the Colonel, "and even if he could, he'd be dead."

There was a momentary pause as Stevenson cleared his throat awkwardly, signaling Roberts to continue with the report."

"Anyway Sir," Roberts continued, "we swept every floor in this exact fashion and we found no one and nothing on board in any room or crevice or behind any corner. William is nowhere to be found. He is not on board."

"Well," replied the Colonel, "at least according to you isn't it? Just because you haven't seen him doesn't mean he isn't here. What proof do we really have that he isn't? Why would the Grey Society be looking so desperately for us if they had already found him?"

After a pregnant pause an officer cleared his throat, "possibly because we attacked them for over twenty years?"

The Colonel shook his head violently, "No you idiot! They want William! Liam! They think we're protecting him! But we're not! We want him too! I WANT HIM! I WILL GET HIM TOO!"

Silence ensued. The Colonel continued to mutter.

"I will get him. I just need to find him. But where could he be?"

He turned around abruptly.

"Alright men! Patrol of the ship will continue. Break into pairs and follow your usual shifts, you know what to do. GO!"

All the men scurried out quickly, leaving the Colonel to himself…

"Where is he??"

At that moment Liam was outside the held, listening with all his might while simultaneously using all his might not to make any movement. After he almost gave himself away to the guard when he inhaled jut a tad too quickly, any movement that was once inconsequential was now hazardous. After seeing most of the guards leave, apparently to search for him, he could hear little else, though he knew the Colonel must be in there. Did his crew know just to what extremes he could go? What he had already done to attempt a victory, in whatever battle he was fighting at the time? Liam shook his head, a movement ever-so slight under the restraint of his paranoia. He turned without a sound into the shadows and far up into the crevices of the ship he was fairly sure that he not only did not know about, but would never have access to. Liam had barely known about them himself until he had absentmindedly stumbled upon the secret hallways and stairs and storerooms during his first frantic chases on board. He wasn't even sure how he'd found them, it was as if they wanted to be found by him, but Liam didn't focus on that as he made his way back to his hideout. He could only focus on what had just happened during this last search…

He stumbled quietly down the hall of the ship's bow. Chased by the quick footsteps of the two unknowing guards, Liam flung himself blindly at every door he encountered. His attempts only became more frantic as each door denied him entrance. He cursed to himself silently for leaving the storeroom and getting trapped down in the basement. Door after door of no access until finally, he came to a vault like door, he tried it and it opened, but upon opening he heard what sounded like screams of pain and hysteria. He hesitated momentarily, but the increased volume of the footsteps drowned out his fear of the screams. He darted into the room and after the quick locking of the door, surrounded himself in silence.

It lasted only a moment.

The screams that had paused upon the locking of the door now began again with renewed fervor; screams of mindless agony and insanity.

Liam stood by the door catching his breath, planning on avoiding the makers of the screams for as long as possible, but eventually fearful curiosity won out and he tentatively made his way towards the noise.

The steel floor only intensified to screaming pitch as Liam approached the source. Liam slowly made his way towards it, not knowing exactly what to expect, and imagining all sorts of Ternov horrors as he continued down the hall. When he did reach the main chamber, the sight he saw completely took him by surprise.

Two twin girls of maybe fifteen were held in chains on opposites end of the chamber. Despite the heavy appearance of the chains, both were attempting to break out of them almost in synchronized movements. They screamed in unison as they moved against their impediments, almost like it was a choreographed dance. Liam got so entirely lost in the grace of their forceful movements that he forgot he was standing in full view of both the girls.

Twin sets of startling red eyes pierced across the room and focused on Liam. He cringed in anticipation of fresh screams that never came. Instead he heard in perfect unison:

You, lost soul, have been looking for yourself for many years, and you will find it soon, but only to lose it again with the rest of the world. But in doing so you will gain everything. You alone can lead this world to its end, and in doing so give it new life.

Silence followed.

Liam was still braced for the screams that hadn't come. When they didn't come, he started back into the hall.

"We can see you, you know."

He froze.

"Don't be afraid. We never have visitors."

Liam slowly lifted his head and saw the two twin girls staring at him in perfect mirror images of the other, now in total complacency, the exact opposite of what had been only a few minutes ago. He was paralyzed with the choice of staying or leaving as fast as possible, but the sudden peaceful look of the twins left him so curious that he simply remained where he was. When he finally found his voice to ask, "Who are you?"

"We're Darla and Donna Davis."

"Davis?" asked Liam in astonishment, "you're the Colonel's daughters?"

"Yes."

"But-" Liam stammered, "I thought you had died three years ago."

"That's what our father told people when the experiment went wrong."

This was mind-boggling. "What experiment?"

"The ones involved to create us into human weapons. Now our minds are linked, and open to violent spirits, but it also allows us to make predictions, and if they're violent enough, our spirits leave for a short time. Obviously you caused a violent premonition. Thank you."

The cool dead tonality of their voices sent a shiver down Liam's spine. "You're welcome, I guess."

"You may want to leave now." The voices said, "the guards have gone and the spirits are returning."

As if released by the words, Liam turned and fled out of the chamber, but not fast enough to entirely escape the fresh screams of agony…

As Liam twisted through the small metal passageways of the ship, he reflected on what he had learned from his encounter with the twins. At first he had completely disbelieved the idea of the Colonel doing anything so vicious as to turn his daughters into prophetic harpies, but looking back on the life of the Colonel, he grew less and less skeptical and more and more aware of the horror of the reality.

Liam made it back to his small safe haven of the ship, a tiny room tucked back behind twisting passages that somehow had not made it to the blueprints and were somehow not able to be found by anyone but him.

He chose to not even consider the twins' prophesy, and laid on his makeshift bed of flour sacks to fall asleep.

Somewhere in the hull of the ship, a gear grinded into the echo of a scream.