Countdown

It had started as a good day for Lilith.

She hadn't felt any intrusive thoughts that day. She'd been calm, oddly calm, like a quiet pool where no wind was there to disturb it. She'd had a good breakfast to start - bran flakes, although she didn't really care for the taste of them. She'd gone down to the local gym - Body 'n' Soul - and worked out a bit, although she had to restrain herself from punching too hard in case she broke the bag. And she'd danced to some Trance music and helped Plague sort some problems out across Olympia.

Now she was having dinner.

She shouldn't have been in a place like this. It was much too upmarket for a group like the Cure. But Lilith had Kobber connections, and nobody was going to refuse anyone who was even remotely connected to them. Lilith still didn't like them very much, although that was a gut feeling she was trying every day to get rid of. She just appreciated being able to do normal human things now and again. And treating herself was one of those things.

Start the clock.

She heard the old woman on the opposite table ask if there was a costume party on. She ignored it. She knew her appearance would draw comments.

The meal she was having was quite nice. She didn't know the name of it, or the way it was done. The not-thoughts told her, but she forgot immediately after that, and they retreated, sulking. All she knew was that it was duck done in orange sauce, which she quite liked. Then again, it wasn't hard to make her like anything that was orange. Orange was her favourite.

She wasn't fond of wine, though. The bottle had gone on about all the different flavours in it, but all she could taste was sour. But it was free, so she drank it anyway.

Forty-five.

The woman was calling for a waiter. She seemed agitated.

Lilith thought she was ready for Agama. She'd packed her bags and everything. She thought she was ready to make the trip, to keep following the Kobbers in her quest to be more than she was. But she was almost at the airport when the idea of what that meant struck her. It meant upheaval, it meant change on a drastic scale, going to somewhere completely different and facing a new set of problems. She barely managed to avoid the panic attack, but the churning in her gut told her everything. She thought she was ready, but... 

She didn't feel ready.

Thirty.

So she'd stayed. Olympia was familiar and safe, and she wasn't sure if she could face Agama, with all the strangeness and difference. Until she felt that she was ready, and she meant really ready, she couldn't make herself go. It was all too much too soon, and she risked too much by jumping the gun. She needed time to mentally prepare for it all. Which was partly why she was here.

The duck really was good. She'd have to let the other members of the Cure know about-

"Get him out of here!"

The sharp note of fear in the old woman's voice made Lilith look up from her plate.

Twenty.

The old woman was pointing frantically at something in front of and to her left. Her expression was a mixture of fright and disgust, like she'd seen something horrible the cat left on the carpet. Lilith's eyes darted over to where she was pointing, but couldn't see anything but empty air. Some others in the restaurant were glancing at her, but mostly they weren't paying any mind to it all.

"Mother, there's nobody there." A young, blonde girl was sitting opposite the speaker, holding her hand. Although her tone was level and her face betrayed no emotion, she kept looking back between her mother and where she was pointing. She clearly didn't want a scene in a crowded establishment like this - already there were people who were taking notice.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked the girl. "Do you want one of your pills?"

"Don't lie to me!" snapped her mother, her voice rising - in anger, or in fear?

Fifteen.

Worry turned in Lilith's head like somebody had stuck a firework to a hamster wheel. Was this woman okay? Was she seeing things? Was she hallucinating, or having some kind of mental breakdown? Sine had told her about a condition that made people see things. Schizo-something or other. Lilith had actually fallen asleep at one point when it was being explained to her, but when she woke up and had it explained again, she was glad she didn't have that. Was that what she was seeing, or was it something else?

She didn't like it either way.

"There!" cried the old woman, pointing - this time, at a spot closer to herself. "It's right there! Can't you see it?!" 

Lilith's hand, the one that held the fork, started to tremble. Should she come and help? She didn't know how. She wanted to make the woman stop doing that, if only so she could eat in peace. But the not-thoughts were arguing in her head. Half of them were saying it wasn't her business, that she'd only draw attention to her own appearance and might make things worse.

Ten.

But the other half could sense that something was wrong. There was nothing in the air, at least nothing that her eyes could see. But there was something...

"Mother, you're worrying me." The young girl still seemed quite calm, and she was rummaging patiently in her handbag for something. But her hands were visibly trembling and something in the tone of her voice mirrored the fear starting to curdle in Lilith's stomach. Everyone was watching now, and a hush had been thrown over the place like a funeral shroud.

"Stop it!" The old woman was leaning back, hands raised. "Stop it! Stop it at once-"

"Hold still, mother, let me get your-"

Five.

And then Lilith saw something. A shape, barely there, as tall as herself but thin, almost emaciated. Something - flesh or cloth, perhaps - hung from it in ragged strips, like a mummy fresh from the tomb. It had its back to her, but she could see the gaunt hands reaching for the old woman, aimed for her temples. She'd shrunk back into her chair, eyes wide with apopletic terror, like a rabbit in front of a tiger. The girl was sitting right next to it, but she didn't even seem to acknowledge its presence.

Three.

Red flashed in Lilith's eyes. The shaking in her hand got worse.

Two.

"Help! Help, get it off-"

One-

"STOP IT!"

Lilith almost didn't realize she'd screamed that until she felt her throat sting. She was standing out of a chair that had tipped onto its back, the heavy wine bottle clutched in her hand like a club. Her eyes were wide and her lips drawn back, baring her teeth in an animal snarl. The Tanden Engine was whirring in her stomach, the sound low and dangerous, like a jet fighter musing over the possibillity of murder. The kill-thoughts screamed, baying for carnage.

But the thing had stopped.

Its hands were mere inches from the victim's temples. It stood there, as if frozen. The old woman had practically collapsed in on herself, shaking and wimpering. Her eyes were darting back and forth in panic-terror, as if she couldn't see the monster anymore. But Lilith could. And the sight of it looming there filled her with hatred and terror all at once. She felt her grip on the bottle tighten as she glared at the apparation, shaking.

Then, like an old door opening for the first time in years, it turned around.

It was a mummy. There was no mistaking it. It fixed her with filmy white eyes sunken in grey, puffy, putrefied flesh. A void sat where the nose should have been, and the jaw hung loosely, as if the very joints were threatening to snap. A wheezy groan that betrayed no emotion came from the dry and cracked recesses of long-dead lungs. The hands that had once reached for a victim now hung loosely and without purpose.

But Lilith wasn't looking at any of that. She was looking at what was branded onto its chest, onto the skin exposed by the half-decayed bandages.

KK-008.

Why does that sound so-?

And then, suddenly, it was gone.

Lilith blinked.

It was gone. Her eyes told her that. And the not-thoughts couldn't pick up anything else. But she could still feel, in the pit of her stomach, the mixed terror and rage. What was it that had set that off? The way the mummy looked? The way it moved? Was it how the old woman had insisted something was there? How her fear had mounted, how she'd gone from demanding to begging to crying in fear at something only she could see? That she couldn't convince anyone to help her?

And what would Lilith herself have done? She didn't know. Would she have run? Fled the diner and never looked back? Would she have tried to stand between the mummy and the woman? Would she have attacked it? Clobbered it with the bottle, then continued with fists and feet and teeth and spite and bile until it was nothing more than-

There was a hand on her arm.

"Miss?"

Lilith looked down. Soft brown eyes looked back up at her.

"Are you okay?"

The young girl was there by her side. The old woman was holding a hand to her chest and gasping, seeming to understand that everything was safe now. But she was vaguely aware everyone else in the restaurant was looking at her now, and there was some muttering and murmuring going on. And a man in a suit was making his way to the scene with brisk steps, looking very put out about it all.

Lilith looked over at the old woman, and saw that she was staring back at her. The fear had gone, but she looked... bewildered. As if she couldn't understand what had just happened.

"...I have to go."

She turned and left, only barely hearing the old woman ask her daughter if there actually was a costume party on.

--------

Test Date: 13/02/2021 

Subject: KK-008 "Pharaoh" 

Location: The Granada, Olympia City 

Target: Mrs. Delila Yates, Age 84. A widower. Medical records hint at possible congenital heart disease and history of paranoid delusion and hallucination. Possible schizoid personality disorder theorized by medical professionals.

Objective: To test possible reduction in killing power and effectiveness of KK-008 due to long period of hibernation since last test.

Outcome: Failure.

Intial performance as expected. KK-008 arrived at location and singled out the target for termination. Target noted the presence of KK-008 at T-60 seconds, showed signs of agitation at T-45 seconds and became distressed at T-20 seconds. No other individuals in the area noted the presence of KK-008 during this time. A waiter was called at T-30 seconds, but did not perceived the presence of the subject. The target's distress was assumed to be due to hallucination or panic attack by others at the scene. KK-008 continued to operate as normal, approaching the increasingly frightened target.

However, at T-0.30 seconds, KK-008 suddenly stopped and did not terminate the target. Footage seems to indicate that another individual, against all probability, perceived the presence of KK-008 and made aggressive motions towards the subject. KK-008 turned to confront the individual, but made no move to attack. At this point, the test was terminated due to risk of exposure to other individuals in the area. KK-008 was recalled and plaed back in storage to recharge.

The fact that KK-008 was perceived by somebody other than the intended target is a cause for concern. The phase camoflague device appears to lose power rapidly during function, which would explain why  KK-008 was detected by the other individual at roughly T-5 seconds before attacking. Until this issue can be rectified, KK-008 is not to be tested further due to risk of exposure and premature discovery of our activities. All testing has been halted for the time being, with efforts redirected towards toxicology testing of KK-005.

Reports that the individual in the footage is the unrecovered KK-010 subject remain unconfirmed.

TO BE CONTINUED...