Page 20 of The Chosen Son

Thankfully, he didn’t push the matter. “Anyway, it’s really too bad you missed it.” I knew what he was about to ask evenbefore he opened his mouth. “So, uh, where were you? I came by your room to bring you along, but you weren’t there.”

“I had book club,” I said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. I didn’t want to tell him that I’d actually slipped in the shower, but since I didn’t have the energy to move, I’d just lain there for an hour.

Phobos laughed for a second, but when I didn’t join in, he tapered off. “Oh, you’re serious?”

“Anyway, I should… go.”

“Wait! Dinner!” he shouted as I slid into the front seat. I waited for him to continue, my hand on the door handle. “It’s my parents’ anniversary on Sunday, and they wanted us to come for dinner. The whole family is coming, and I would love for you to meet them.”

“Your family… has dinner? Even Deimos?” I asked skeptically.

He shuffled his feet, his shoulders inching up in a surprisingly boyish move. “Yeah, our sister Harmonia kinda forces us to. No fighting allowed.”

I tried to imagine the two brothers sitting across the table from each other, eating dinner like two civilized people, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. After the way they fought at the gala, it wouldn’t take much for them to destroy the place. “Uh, sure, I’ll come, but… just as friends, okay? I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

“No, no! That’s perfect. Friends, yep.” I didn’t believe him for a second.

I was glad for the long drive ahead. It was a chance to rewind, clear my head. I rolled the window down, letting the fresh breeze tug at my hair, and sang along to some music, completely off-key but care-free. When I pulled up to the security gate in front of the government building, though, my thoughts were just as tangled as they’d been when I left, and the reality of my situation came crashing down hard.

I really thought I’d seen the last of this place.

The guard was new and didn’t recognize me as I announced myself at the gate, and even showing my ID, my name didn’t bring any awareness to his bland expression. I was issued a temporary visitor’s pass, then I pulled through and parked in the shadow of the unmarked government building. Staring up at the gray-bricked building sent a shiver through me. It hadn’t changed a bit over the last ten years. It was like it had leapt straight out of one of my nightmares.

The man who met me at the door, however, had aged—and not well. He was wearing a rumpled brown suit, and I wondered for a moment if they’d had to pull my handler out of retirement for this. “Cameron,” he said, nodding his head.

I stopped in front of him, unsure about the protocol. Did we hug? Shake hands? Neither felt right. “Barney. You got old.”

He arched a brow. “You too. You look like shit.”

“Yeah, well… That’s why I called.”

We lapsed into silence after that. He led and I followed, though I could’ve found the way with my eyes closed. I’d spent the better part of my youth in this building, undergoing rigorous testing and training to prepare for the ultimate showdown against Nefarious.

The hall was lined with plaques and photos, memorializing all the Chosen Ones™ that had come before me, giving their lives for the greater good. There was Mere Nasoko, 15 years old when she’d died in a volcanic blast on Ambrym Island while helping to evacuatevillagers. Otto Ward, just 13, who’d defeated a bloodthirsty monster who’d crawled from the depths of Hell, perishing to his injuries just moments after having won his battle. Generation after generation for hundreds of years, children had been sacrificing themselves to save others, whether from natural disaster or more supernatural threats. The existence of these select few predated the CHPD, obviously, but I personally found it comforting to be able to blame a single government agency for all the lives needlessly lost.

I paused at the end of the row, at the empty space on the wall where my photo should’ve been—had I died, of course. Which I didn’t.

“It’s no wonder the guard didn’t recognize me,” I said, glancing at Barney. “Looks like the sacrifices I made never happened. Like I never existed at all.”

The wrinkles around his eyes deepened as he flinched. “You know it’s not like that.”

I snorted, shaking my head sharply. “No, it’s exactly like that,” I muttered as I pushed past him. “Hard to make me a martyr for the cause when I’m not dead.”

I wondered if my parents would consider it a sacrifice, to have given up their firstborn son for the greater good. They’d been financially compensated, of course. I hadn’t talked to them since I was “recruited.” At first, Barney hadn’t wanted me to get distracted from my training, and then after I had done my job, I found out they’d had another son to replace me. To be honest, I was still pissed they’d given me up without a fight for a bit of cash.

Dr. Wells was exactly where I’d last seen him, hunched behind his desk, eyes on the computer monitor, but when I stormed into the lab, his face filled with intense curiosity, and he pushed back from the desk and approached me, already reaching for his stethoscope drapedaround his neck. “Cameron, my dear boy. Let’s have a look at you, shall we?”

He was a hard man to dislike, just because he was always so happy-go-lucky, but I also felt like I didn’t really know him. I didn’t even know his first name, nothing about his family life. He had this way of steering every conversation back to you, his test subject.

“Hop up on the table,” he said, and I climbed carefully up onto the padded bench. He listened to my heart, my lungs as I drew a deep breath, looked into my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, then he took my blood pressure.

I listed my slew of random symptoms. “But it’s weird because they come and go. Some mornings I’ll wake up and feel almost normal, and then next I can hardly move.”

“Mmm, mm-hm, mm-hm.” He’d been humming like that a lot while taking notes, nodding as if to himself. “Well, I think we’re going to need to run some blood work, do some scans.”

“D-Do you know what it is?” I asked carefully, bracing myself.

He pursed his lips, hesitating to answer. “I have a few ideas, but I want to make sure before I start guessing.”

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