Into the Dark

Her family had progressed watching the New World be built, generation after generation. It was slow progress, the Light City going up piece by piece.

Katana’s father was the new head of it all. Every man in the Harte family was passed the role of leader.

The Light City was created out of the dust of Earth. Nuclear war had begun, blasting the world to dust. But they were creating a new world with the old pieces.

Not everyone agreed with the distribution of power. It was the whole world they were ruling, and some people wanted that for themselves. That’s how the Dark Agency began. No one knew who started it. No one could distinguish a regular person from a Dark Agent.

Katana was weary of people. She’d grown up with the idea that everyone could be a potential Dark Agent and found it hard not to imagine new faces concealing Dark secrets.

The only person she trusted was Stellan. She’d known him since birth, they’d practically been raised together. Their mothers were best friends and one was always at the other’s house.

But Stellan had been acting strange lately. He was normally open and honest, comforting, warm, safe. He’d become closed off and distant, secretive.

Dark.

Katana tried to look past it. He’d been her friend for seventeen years. In that time he’d never failed her and she always tried to be the equivalent of that.

She gave him space when it seemed he needed it and he needed it more and more.

Until one day.

Katana was working on her painting. The special paint had been made with moon dust and starlight. That was one reason the city had been named Light City. They had been able to access star light. It was in their materials, in their diet, in their blood. The species had evolved by taking. Taking from the stars, from space. Taking everything that belonged to others.

That went to say the human race hadn’t changed a bit. Even with new technology and a second version of Earth, they would never change. Humans got what they wanted by taking. Take or die. Take lives, take land, take freedom.

It never ended and it never would.

But while Katana finished her picture, an old Earthen landscape, Stellan approached her. They were in her work room which was round and had paintings hanging from the ceiling with beams of light.

“I need to talk to you,” he told her. She set her materials down on the canvas. The warmth was back in his voice. It was like he’d never changed. Katana almost let herself pretend this was true.

His smile was open, and kind, and true. She felt the back of her neck fill with warmth, and when he touched her shoulder, her skin tingled. She tried to dismiss the fluttering inside her stomach.

“Let’s go for a walk,” he offered. Katana nodded, her words stuck in the back of her throat. It had been so long since he’d been kind to her. She almost forgot how much she adored him.

He was fit and muscular, but not overly large. He was handsome and charming, with a traditional Light Style hair cut. The eye color range had increased with the new substances in their diet. Purple, yellow, pink, red, silver, and black all appeared as natural colors. In fact, those were more common than brown, green, and blue.

Stellan had silver eyes and dark blonde hair. Katana was gifted with purple eyes and light brown hair.

They walked around the large pond. It was about one kilometer, give or take, in diameter.

“I need to apologize for how I’ve been acting lately,” he began, and she waited for him to offer an explanation as well. He didn’t and Katana wasn’t sure if it was her business to ask for one.

“I promise you it will never happen again. I’ve just been… distracted,” he continued.

“It’s okay,” she lied. He smiled gratefully and she decided not to ask questions. He would never betray her.

Right?

Throughout the following days, she was as close with Stellan as she’d always been. They walked together, went for lunch together; he stuck to her like glue and she was fine with it.

But a few days later she had a growing suspicion that he was hiding something. She had just gotten him back though, she didn’t want to lose him with pressing questions. She didn’t want him to assume she didn’t trust him.

He accompanied her to parties, he bought her gifts, and he taught her to skip stones in the pond. Over the span of a few months the suspicion faded and Katana forgot all about it. She was wrapped up in his charm, the way he could make even the smallest moments seem special.

So of course, when he asked her to join him for a job interview she didn’t question it.

It was only when they entered a large building and got into the elevator that she began to panic. Instead of going up he took her down to the basement.

“Where are we going?” Katana asked, her voice quivering as they made their descent.

It was like she was with a completely different person. The Stellan she’d grown to trust again was gone. A Dark expression stole his face. Dark and smug.

He took a few steps in her direction, closing the gap between them. Katana backed up to the wall and he closed in on her.

“Please stop!” she exclaimed, failing to mask her fear. The elevator shuddered as it landed. Grinning, he grabbed her wrists and dragged her out.

“Help!” she shrieked, hoping someone would come to her rescue. As he dragged her farther into the basement, no one came to her aid.

When Stellan grew irritated of her screaming the last thing she saw was his fist.

She fell into an abyss and it swallowed her hungrily.

She awoke to find Stellan standing over her. She was seated on a cold chair, her wrists and ankles bound. A crooked smile adorned his face, sending shivers down her skin.

“Dearest, I have a gift for you,” he grinned, studying her face with a twisted and cruel expression.

“If you didn’t know, there’s a little, heart shaped locket implanted in your chest. It can track you and it can blow you into a million pieces.” He chuckled at the last statement.

Then his expression folded into stone-cold seriousness. “If you don’t comply you will die,” he warned.

“How do I know you’re not lying to scare me?” Katana cried, ignorantly hoping that this was just one big prank.

Stellan fished through his pocket and produced a remote. It sported a large red button and a smaller blue one.

“Try me.”

Katana only stared at him, dazed and confused. She longed for home, to wake up in her bed and realize it was all a dream.

Stellan’s dark smile returned, “Superior has a mission for you.” She stared into his eyes, waiting.

“Kill your father.”

Katana gasped. “I would never - I can’t! You can’t make me!”

Stellan just laughed, and he made a production of bringing the remote to the dim light. He slowly pressed the blue button. She froze, waiting for her organs to explode. They didn’t.

Instead, pain seized her chest. She doubled over, crying out in agony. It remained for a long moment. When it did finally cease she could barely breathe. Shaking, she stared up at Stellan.

“I - I’ll do it,” she muttered, tears streaming down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and shuddered when she inhaled.

She opened her eyes to let them roam around her family's large sitting room. She fingered the skin where the locket/bomb was embedded. Stellan's gift.

Her gaze landed on the door to her father’s office where she could hear keys clicking as he typed. She took a moment to collect herself and paint a dazzling smile over her face. A carefree smile.

A lie.

She opened the door to her father’s study. He looked up when she entered, and she grinned.

“Father, may I speak to you in private?”