[Baltimore, 18/02/2030]
The sky, although still brightful, had just started to lose its brightness as the time of day approached the end, with the sun slowly proceeding to the western horizon.
Animals withdrew, their presence fading into glowing twilight. The cold, subtly, resurfaced despite the approaching end of winter.
In certain areas of the city, silence crept under the watchful gaze of the stars. Schools and workplaces silenced as their daily present individuals returned home, resulting in neighborhoods getting noisy.
Adults returned to their home, greeted by their loved ones, be them partners, parents or children.
However, in a specific house, within a specific neighborhood, resided a certain solemn calmness.
Neighbors passed in front of the white-painted wooden house, their perception not letting escape the slight warm voices and presence within the house. But even so, they couldn't see in themselves the resistance to hold a saddening lament, the only vestige of their presence near the house as they walked away from the wooden fence.
"How was your reunion with Father Smith?" Within the house, the mature voice of a woman resounded across the room she was situated in, and going beyond the kitchen's walls.
"Everything went well, thanks to the Lord." A manly voice replied to her, the echo of his steps intensifying as he approached her.
Looking up the ingredients she carefully prepared, the woman, of glimmering black skin, black hair that flowed down on both sides, dark brown eyes and refined facial features, smiled sweetly at the man under the entrance of the room.
Said man, in contrast to the beautiful mature woman, was simple in appearance.
Shaved black hair, a trimmed greasily beard, average stature and height, and no great facial features. That was a simple, but also complete, description of the man's physical appearance.
However, contrary to his unforgettable appearance, there was something in him, in his posture. Something more that could catch someone's attention.
The man, unbuttoning his suit, with a political pin buttoned over the left side of the cloth, put the piece of clothing over the back of a chair, and approached the counter where his wife was preparing dinner on.
"How was your day?" The man asked his wife after a brief welcoming kiss, looking down on the food, trying to pick a little bit of something to bite.
Slap! The woman, putting no strength whatsoever, slapped the man's hand away. "You know the rules, go take a bath and then you wait for me to put the meal on the table."
"Just a little bit…" The man attempted to talk it out with his wife, but seeing her serious gaze, he just shut up and nodded. "Okay, okay."
"Good." The woman nodded in satisfaction, returning to prepare the meal. "So, how exactly did things work out with Father Smith?"
"He agreed to let me make use of his church to help me in my campaign. He just asked for a little bit of help to improve the surrounding streets' conditions as they have degraded over time if I were elected to ."
"Hm, quite a small thing he asked." The woman muttered.
"Oh, Veronica. You know Father Smith is not that kind of man. He wouldn't make use of this favor for personal gain." The man, Terrance, said with a soft chuckle, finding the idea absurd.
"I'm just worried. But, I believe in you." Veronica nodded accordingly, dismissing the idea rather quickly. "However… don't you think you are moving quite fast? There are still two more years ahead before the elections for the City Council." She, worriedly and gently, asked her husband who was about to leave the room.
Terrance halted on his steps, his figure standing over the kitchen's entrance. The words from his wife had a certain reaction on him, her words seemingly reminding him of something.
"Well, it's not like I have better things to do." Terrance said, turning his head slightly to show a forced smile he had. "If these early actions can help me make this place better, so no more accidents like what happened to our son might occur again, then they are worth it."
Listening to his words, Veronica's hands stopped their actions for a moment. She briefly stared at her husband in solemn silence. "Okay, I understand." Veronica nodded. "If you need any help, remember I'm here."
"Knowing you are here is what already gives me much of my strength." Terrance said before walking once again, leaving the room and heading to his room.
Alone, once again, Veronica resumed her actions, preparing the meal for today's dinner.
She silently stood there by the counter, handling the ingredients, moving the pans and settling down the cutlery.
All the while, Veronica didn't mutter a single word. Her silence seemed to resound across the house, as a solemn mood once again returned to the residence.
That is, until…
Vrr… Vrr…
Nearing the preparations for dinner, Veronica noticed the vibrations from her phone.
With steady steps, she approached the counter once again, taking hold of her phone, reading the revealed information over the screen.
"RF".
She frowned upon the letters displayed, but the slight intrigue didn't delay her response for long, accepting the call afterwards.
"Yes?"
"Director?" A rushed, but attempted controlled, voice came from the other side. "I need your immediate attention."
"I thought so if you called me. What is the reason behind the call?"
"We have an issue with E-001." The man straightforwardly said, not trying to add meaningless words to the conversation, as to just deliver the necessary message.
And it seems the message was successfully delivered, as seen by Veronica's abrupt shift in demeanor and mood.
"What do you mean by that?"
"We still don't know. From our readings, it seems 001… expelled something." The scientist, with a little doubt in his tone, replied.
"Expelled?" Veronica repeated the word. "How did it expel anything?"
"It's just our assumptions so far, but we believe it to be the most logical outcome by our data." The man said, the previous doubt and rush disappearing, his voice taking a more serene tone. "It was sudden, but the last gathered data was identified with a nearly inverted pattern of the normal incoming data when E-001 consumes things."
"So that's where your assumption comes from…"
"Correct." The man agreed. "But there is more." He added.
"How so?"
"It seems the pit has become… active." The man said, his words taking a while to be pronounced, as if waiting for affirmation to speak.
"And what exactly does that mean?" Veronica asked, raising her hand to the forehead.
"The source is the same recent data. After the inverse pattern, we noticed something else different. From the data, what we can understand is that the pit passed from a state of slumber to awake." The man said, but quickly changed his words. "Or, in this case, it would be wiser to say it passed from hibernation to a deep sleep."
"The parameters?"
"Level of molecular activity increased, the same applied for ME. But still no signs of apparent consciousness. It's the first time E-001 has behaved this way since the primary tests 15 years ago." The scientist quickly replied.
"Use all our ways, try to find any anomaly across our accessible locations. If needed, use the prisoners." Veronica sternly said. Or better yet, ordered. "And keep an exclusive eye open for past erases." She added after a brief wondering pause.
"I will make it done, Director." The man accepted the orders. "Anything else?"
"No." She simply replied, cutting off the call right after the word left her lips.
Holding the phone in her hand, Veronica stayed in place, thoughtful of the information just delivered to her.
I have to go. She thought, pursing her lips, quickly acting according to her thoughts.
Leaving the kitchen, Veronica walked to the main room, where she took the stairs upwards, heading towards her room.
"Dear?" Terrance, who laid on the couple's bed, reading a book, looked over at his wife at the moment of her entrance in their room. And immediately, he noticed her different mood.
"Sorry, dear. But I have to go." Veronica quickly said, opening her closet. "Work is calling." She grabbed a previously prepared bag from within, putting the strap of it over her shoulder.
"Well, what can I do? I just have to fault myself for marrying such a competent woman." Terrance said, getting up from the bed. "Need any help?"
"No." Veronica shook her head. "But I have to leave as soon as possible, so I can't stay for dinner. The stew is almost ready, just ten more minutes on the stove and it should be on point." She said, leaving the room with her husband following her steps.
"Anything else?" He asked when walking down the stairs.
Near the door, Veronica turned on her heels and smiled. "Nothing, just stay in good health while I am away. As always, I don't know for how long I will be away."
"Okay, I will take care of myself." Terrance nodded, approaching his wife and getting a kiss from her.
After both broke the kiss, the husband opened the door for his wife, his gaze following her as Veronica entered her car.
When within the vehicle, Veronica turned on the engine, waving her hand at her husband as she drove away, the car quickly disappearing over the road.
And across the streets, through the turns and semaphores, a single thought crept on the back of Veronica's mind.
What brought this change to the pit?
[Triad Industries]
Veronica's steps echoed for a slightly longer moment through the empty long corridor, the whiteness of the walls and floor having a blurred reflection of her figure.
After a specific number of steps that Veronica already had memorized in her mind, the woman stood before a metallic automatic door.
The door had no know, nothing that someone could hold onto due to its flat surface.
But by taking a step to the right side, Veronica didn't need to wait for longer than a second before a rectangular part of the white wall retreated upwards, revealing a blue screen.
Approaching her face to the screen, she properly aimed her right eye over it, with a flash of unharmful light proceeding to pass over it.
Readjusting her head's position, the woman then extended her hand out, laying her hand over the cold surface of the screen, with a similar blue light escaping through the infimal space between her hand and the object.
At the end of the two procedures, Veronica took a deep breath, apparently adjusting her voice as she moved her hand along her throat. Following her actions, she muttered seven words.
"No darkness shall lurk in the light."
The response to her words came swiftly. The door opened, the two sides sliding apart to permit entrance, with a cascade of voices flowing out of it.
Past the entrance, the primary characteristic of who entered the room wasn't the stark white light, or the rows of state-of-the-art devices across the laboratory.
What caught their sight, and interest, was the existence from across the side of the glass wall positioned in front of the entrance.
Darkness… a black pit of endless darkness stationed within a white space, creating an obvious contrast.
At the brief moment Veronica lost focus to the darkness, the noise around the room receded.
"Director?"
Turning her head to the side, Veronica exchanged glances with a white middle-aged man of grizzled hair and rough voice. "Dr. Campbell, I hope you come with better news."
"Depends on the perspective." The man, who seemed to hold a certain authority by how he presented before everyone, pursued his lips.
"How so?"
"The pit seems to have receded from its previous active state." The scientist, taking a step to the side, turned and looked at darkness. "For what reason, we still are unaware. But before the seemingly calmness, our scanners detected a sudden spike in its activities, even among the previous state." At this point, the man paused in his words. "And… we detected an unknown source outside…"
Veronica snapped her eyes in reaction to the scientist's words, the slight widen of them revealing her surprise at the information.
"What? And where?" She demanded.
"We don't know exactly what. We could only measure the amount of ME. Higher than any normal vampire, although still not on the same level as the existences entitled 'Originals'." Dr. Campbell replied, reaching his hand out to receive a device from a member of his staff. He pressed the device's screen a few times before handing it to his superior. "The location of the sudden source of energy."
"Mystic Falls…"
"Correct." Dr. Campbell nodded, noticing the complicated expression of his superior at the mention of the town's name. "A few moments after the appearance of the new source of energy, the magical signature of the unknown existence disappeared completely. We identified the reason behind it, an intrinsic complex magical barrier that-"
"Dr. Campbell, give me a moment." Veronica raised her hand, the scientist immediately ceasing his speech.
Pulling her phone from one of her coat's pockets, Veronica's fingers almost turned into a blur as she dialed a number that she had long memorized in her mind.
With her phone over her ear, Veronica resisted her urge to diverge the anxiety within her.
To her relief, a voice quickly replied to her call after just a few seconds of wait.
"Mom?" A teenage masculine voice called her.
"Milton, my dear." She calmly replied, holding the breath of relief that almost escaped her lips.
"Good evening, mom. How are you? Is dad there?"
"I'm good, son. No, your father is at work. He has been too occupied recently." Veronica quickly replied, her words not missing a beat. Flowing just as naturally as the truth that it was. Or, at least, had recently become.
"Ah, got it." The young man, a little saddened by the news, changed his tone of voice. However, he quickly peeked up when he thought of something. "Oh, mom! You won't believe what just happened in the school today!"
"Hm, what happened?" With a mildly curious tone, Veronica urged her son to tell her.
"A dragon appeared in the school today!" The boy excitedly said.
But different from his cheerful mood, Veronica took a serious stance. "What? What happened?" And against her expression, her voice carried curiosity and worry, like a mother who worried about their child.
"You should've seen it! A woman with wings approached the school, and then she talked in a strange language. And when we least expected, she and John were fighting all over the school's entrance. They moved like blurs, even for someone like me!" The boy, Milton, explained with such an excitement in his voice, that it seemed he was recounting an epic tale from the past. "And then, they moved the fight to the forest behind the school, and the woman turned into a full dragon! Breathing fire and everything! And then-"
"Is everyone at school safe?" Veronica interrupted her son's speech, sounding concerned about the situation.
"Yeah, everyone is fine. John fought the dragon and dealt with it."
"Good, good…" Veronica nodded, pacing around the room slowly, approaching a computer. "This person, John. Is he the same one you told me before?"
"Yes, it's him." The young man agreed. "Why?"
"Nothing. Just to be sure that if, someday, I find him, I should thank him for apparently saving my son." The woman said, her fingers brushing the keyboard slowly, ensuring to make the least of the sounds. "But, do you have any idea why a… dragon attacked your school? Hm, that's strange. I am sure Principal Saltzman told me the only supernatural species were witches, vampires, werewolves and a few subspecies."
"Hm, we aren't certain of that either. As I said, it spoke in a different language, and I was too distracted by its appearance to notice anything." The boy explained. "As for how it exists… magic?" He gave a random answer that could actually be used to respond to any question.
Veronica, with a light chuckle, seemingly agreed. "Okay, honey. I just wanted to hear from you to see if everything is fine. I will call Principal Saltzman to see if everything is alright and learn more about the situation. If anything happens, call me, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye, Milton."
"Bye, mom. I love you." Then, the call ended
Veronica slowly put her phone to the side, still holding it, pressing the device against the table with no pressure.
Meanwhile, her eyes focused on the computer's screen.
[Name: Jonathan Néo
Age: 16 years and 1 month old.
Species: Unknown.
Nationality: U.S.
Physical Appearance…]
She frowned at the available information despite not expecting more than what was in front of her eyes.
Approaching the woman, Dr. Campbell took a look at the screen before referring to the woman. "Director Greasley?"
"Yes?"
"Do you have any orders?"
"Can you redirectionare the Magical Energy scanners to Mystic Falls and surroundings?" She asked.
"Yes."
"Then do it. If it detects any existence surpassing Level 5, alert me immediately." Veronica relayed her orders. "If I don't reply, I will entrust you to alert any other official about the creature's surge."
Dr. Campbell just nodded. "Anything else?"
"Intensify the tests on E-001." Veronica added. "And alert me of any discovery."
"Understood, Director." Dr. Campbell smiled lightly and walked away from her, with the scientist around immediately proceeding to follow the relayed orders and complete the necessary changes.
In the middle of the room, surrounded by the sound of steps and the whiteness of the room, Veronica's eyes once again fell onto the pit of endless darkness isolated ahead.
She just stood there, for only a few seconds, with the echoes of the surrounding scientist and the electrical humming of machines whispering in her ears, as her eyes seemed to drown in the darkness far from her.
Hum…
But then, a sound caught her attention.
Turning around, Veronica faced a relatively young man standing in front of her.
The man was decently tall, with a refined and athletic build. Common brown eyes, but with a darkness of mystery amidst it, and curly dark brown hair.
He held himself confidently, his eyes wandering around the room for the briefest of the moments before settling straight ahead, with a mischievous light smile hanging onto his lips.
When the man looked down on the woman, his smile stretched quite a bit. Then, he slightly bowed his head in her direction.
"Good evening, Director Greasley." His voice was deep, serious and with an everlasting equal tone all the way.
"Agent Clarke." Veronica recognized the man's existence, nodding his way discreetly. "Can I know the reason for your presence?"
"An appointed erasure was delayed for a few hours, I came to learn of the reason."
"Certain things happened." Veronica seriously replied, looking over her shoulder at the pit's direction.
"May I know why?"
"I don't think so until we figure it out completely ourselves."
"Okay, then." Agent Clarke just nodded, keeping his mischievous smile, unbothered by the lack of answers.
Veronica turned around, her back facing the agent.
He is as strange as ever. She thought. Fortunately, this never got in his way in any of his missions. "Agent Clarke."
"Yes, Director?"
"Can I trust you with a task?"
"Always. Your orders are my work, after all." The corner of his lips curled slightly, trying to show his satisfaction at his work, uncaring of her not facing him.
"Learn everything as possible about the Salvatore School of Mystic Falls and its residents. I feel our lack of knowledge about them might be unfavorable right now." Veronica ordered, straightforwardly and simply.
Uncaring if he had her attention or not, Ryan bowed his head slightly in her direction, the same light smile hanging on his lips. "At your orders." With a spun on his heels, the only hint of his exit was the whooshing sound of the door opening.
With an eye over her shoulder, Veronica stayed quiet, engulfed in the stillness and calm of the room.
She was unaware of the storm that approached her world, a storm brewed by two existences. One, whose actions resulted out of restraint and fear, paved the path for the one who seeked freedom.