Alpha Rising
Cellblock Earth: Chapter 4
FLATHEAD LAKE, MONTANA
Helena sat at the rickety two-person table in the kitchen and pushed soggy Rice Krispies around in a bowl.
Tony sat across from her with his own bowl, appearing about as interested in it as she was. She stole furtive glances at him whenever she could and hoped she didn’t look as obvious as she felt. It was just that she couldn’t help looking at him. He was so handsome he demanded to be looked at as often as possible. And he didn’t seem to be aware of it, which made him even more irresistible.
He was sitting with his head bent, his black hair gleaming in a ray of sunlight that slanted across the kitchen. She gazed at the strands curling against his neck and marveled at how they were so dark they seemed to have hints of blue in them. His hair had been severely short when she first met him, in the cut of an athlete. Now, two months later, it had grown long enough to almost touch his shoulders. It made her want to pull it through her fingers to see how soft it was.
Tony glanced up at her and Helena’s spoon slipped out of her fingers with a clatter. Embarrassed, she pushed away from the table and took her half-eaten cereal to the sink. A smile ghosted across Tony’s lips and he put his own spoon down.
“You’re not hungry either?” he asked.
Helena turned and leaned against the counter, crossing her arms.
“No. I’m worried about Jason. Where the hell is he?” she said.
Tony sighed, sitting back in his chair.
“I have no idea. Nik says he’s okay, but I don’t understand why he’s not here. Do you think he left the ranch?”
Helena chewed on her lower lip, gazing anxiously at Tony.
“Maybe he found out where his sister is?” she asked.
Tony shrugged, shaking his head silently.
The movement drew Helena’s attention to the way the fabric of his T-shirt clung to the muscles in his upper arm. She decided to find something to clean up on the counters. There was more than one reason why Jason needed to come back as soon as possible. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to be alone with Tony. The belief that her desire to keep him with their little group was purely altruistic was being challenged. Todd was gone. He had refused to join them when they left California.
The memory of her last conversation with Todd made Helena ache with regret. It had been contentious to say the least. He had been convinced that Nikita was not to be trusted, Tony should be in jail, and Jason should be in some CIA black site getting experimented on.
It had ended with him vowing to go to her parents and the police to force her to return home, and her threatening to break his limbs. Their relationship was officially over. If she was totally honest with herself, she had to admit it had been over the moment she laid eyes on Tony. Out of nowhere he had appeared with a shotgun and heartbroken eyes in a beautiful face. He had taken her out as accurately as if she had had a target on her chest. And here she was, pining like a sixth grader with a crush.
“Hey,” she said, turning back to Tony. “Have you tried calling your family?” She wanted to bite her tongue when she saw him flinch.
Tony shook his head slowly, his expression pained.
“No. I wanted to but I just didn’t know what to say. Those were my dad’s guns I took to school. I can imagine the hell the police put him through.”
Helena nodded, her throat tight with sympathy for him.
“I get it. I haven’t called my family either. They would just yell at me to come home, you know?” She swallowed hard. “I know they’re so worried about me. I just—I can’t tell them about this. They wouldn’t understand.”
Tony looked up at her questioningly.
“What is ‘this’ exactly?” he asked. “This stuff Nik is trying to teach us to do – ‘remote viewing.’ Do you understand what he’s talking about? It really sounds like science fiction crap to me.”
Helena sighed, picking up a kitchen towel and twisting it in her hands.
“He seems to think we can find Mr. Vadrian, or Veleno or whatever his name is with it. I don’t know how that’s possible by just thinking about him. We found him the first time by talking to people and tracking down leads; by doing something. We’re just sitting in the middle of nothing out here. It’s driving me crazy.”
“If you feel like you’re not accomplishing anything, that’s your own fault, isn’t it?”
Nikita leaned against the doorway, watching them.
Helena jumped, dropping the towel on the floor.
“Can you teach us how to sneak up on people without making any noise like you do all the time?” she complained, bending to retrieve the cloth.
Straightening, Nikita entered the kitchen with a sarcastic smile.
“I don’t know if I can do that, kotenok. I’m afraid it’s more ‘science fiction crap’.”
Tony flushed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
“I just meant I don’t know if all this mind stuff you talk about is real, Nik. I’ve only heard of things like that in Stephen King novels. I wish I was psychic and could set fires by just picturing it, but I can’t.”
Nikita laughed. “Oh, I can only imagine what you would have done with that power, Anthony. Your little high school would have been reduced to a pile of smoking rubble.”
Helena frowned as the blush on Tony’s cheeks grew darker and he cast his eyes towards the table.
“Stop it, Nik. He feels really bad about all that. You don’t have to rub it in.”
Nikita joined Helena at the counter and reached out to touch a tendril of her blonde hair.
“Our kotenok has little claws too. It’s good you’re so fierce. You will come to need that quality in the future, I think.”
Helena shot an irritated look at him and moved away.
“Can you speak English when you talk about me, please?” she said. “I want to know if you’re calling me a disgusting pig.”
Nikita laughed again, his smile lighting up his face with ethereal beauty. The sight set Helena on edge. She had been disconcerted by his unreal good looks from day one. It made him even more inhuman to her, for some reason. And she was feeling vulnerable enough as it was. The possibility that Todd had been right about him was gaining credibility. She never seriously questioned her own judgment and she didn’t want to start now. She was too invested and they all had too much at stake. Regaining her composure, Helena faced Nikita squarely.
“Nik, where’s Jason?” she asked.
“He’s around,” he said cryptically, his broad smile reduced to a mocking smirk.
***
Nikita stood in Jason’s cell and examined the large crack in the concrete, running his fingers over it lightly.
“Been having any dreams lately, solnyshko?” he asked, continuing to study the wall.
Jason glared at Nikita’s back from the bed and pulled on the chains binding him, sending loud ringing throughout the room.
“Take these off and I’ll tell you all about them, Nik,” he said, his voice tight with anger.
Nikita turned and gazed at Jason.
“What if you’re just a dream the Universe is having right now? Your reality, everything you think is happening, your entire being… just a random firing of neurons in an infinite cerebral cortex?”
Jason snorted, the muscles in his arms straining as he twisted his wrists inside the shackles.
“You must be a nightmare then,” he snarled.
Nikita laughed, a hearty sound that bounced around the naked concrete walls. Stepping up to the side of the bed, he tapped Jason in the center of the forehead with his index finger.
“I think I liked you better when you were inside your shell.”
Jason jerked away from the touch and resisted the urge to start shouting. He had no choice except to play by Nik’s rules for the moment. He had to engage, as much as he detested doing it.
“What do you want, Nik?” he asked warily. “What do I need to do to get out of here?”
Nikita smiled and sat down on the end of the bed.
“Two very simple things: Release yourself from those shackles. Then tell me that you accept yourself as the Alpha.”
He raised an eyebrow at the look on Jason’s face.
“What’s the problem, solnyshko? Do you doubt you can remove the restraints? I mean, really.”
He waved his hand at the ceiling and walls.
“Look at this place. You’re halfway there already.”
Jason bit his lower lip, his uncertainty apparent.
“I didn’t do that on purpose,” he said, as if apologizing.
Nikita fixed Jason with an intent stare that made him want to squirm.
“Of course you did it on purpose. Don’t lie to me. Don’t lie to yourself. You are lazy, solnyshko. All you need to do is focus. You are like a baby snake that doesn’t know to stop biting and spits its venom uncontrollably.”
Nikita got up and stood at the foot of the bed, pointing two fingers towards his own eyes.
“Look at me, Alpha. I know you hate me. You should. I have taken your freedom away from you. You and your friends up there are not guests here. You are all hostages.”
He paused abruptly, holding up one hand in a conciliatory gesture.
“I’m sorry, I spoke incorrectly. You are not a hostage. They are.”
Jason’s expression reflected confusion and unease at Nikita’s words.
“What are you talking about? We all came with you willingly—“
He stopped as Nikita began shaking his head in disagreement.
“Did you? Do you even remember coming here all that well? You don’t, do you? You were a little bit fuzzy there for a few days, weren’t you, solnyshko?”
A cold sick feeling crept up Jason’s spine and tickled the base of his skull.
“And your companions… well, one had the option of joining us or going to prison, and the other is smitten and lost in the wilderness. Now, I am most certainly not a philanthropist.”
Jason stared up at Nikita in disbelief, speechless.
“They are here to assist me in handling you, Alpha. Keeping you in line with the program. My program.”
Leaning down, he placed his hands flat on the bed, his eyes ravenous on Jason’s stunned face.
“If you refuse to cooperate with me, I hurt them. If you give me trouble, I hurt them. And if you run away from me, I kill them. Tell me you believe me.”
Jason’s body felt transfixed, turned to stone with horror. Slowly, he nodded his head, his mouth suddenly bone dry.
“I believe you,” he said, his voice raspy and low.
“Excellent. It was obvious from the start you are the smartest one.”
Nikita stood straight again and clapped his hands together.
“Now… release yourself from the shackles.”
Feeling helpless, Jason could only stare mutely at him, his mind a chaos of thoughts he couldn’t make sense of. Nikita sighed.
“What did I just say to you, Alpha? Focus. Center your mind on the thing you want to accomplish and make it happen. Do it now. Oh, and please don’t cave the ceiling in and bury us. That would really piss me off.”
Jason swallowed hard and looked down at the iron encircling his wrists. All manner of thoughts crowded his brain, making it nearly impossible to concentrate. He felt Nikita’s attention keenly and deadline panic threatened to engulf him. Then, completely unbidden, the image of Tory appeared in his inner vision and all other content within his mind was obliterated.
“Jason, relax,” her voice whispered to him like an errant breeze. “Look at them. See them open.”
His vision sharpened on the restraints and suddenly became magnified as if he were peering through a microscope. Every tiny pit and scratch in the metal were as big as craters, and he found that he could see all the way through them until his skin was visible underneath.
“Open,” he murmured.
The shackles slid away from his arms and fell to the blanket in pieces. When Jason picked one up, he was surprised to feel it as soft and pliable as a sheet of thin plastic. Holding it in his hand, he raised his gaze to Nikita in astonishment.
“Identify yourself as the Alpha,” Nikita commanded.
Resistance at the order slammed down within Jason like a heavy gate dropping and he let the piece of iron fall out of his hand.
“My name is Jason,” he stated flatly.
For a split second, Nikita’s eyes flashed iridescent blue, and he came to the side of the bed, moving in close.
“Jason is who you once were,” he said, his tone deceptively quiet. “Jason was a scared child who got bullied and beat up and who needed his sister to take care of him. He couldn’t do what I just saw. He wasn’t capable of doing anything except crying and bleeding.”
Jason stared straight ahead with a clenched jaw, not meeting Nikita’s eyes. When he bent to Jason’s ear, he refused to acknowledge him until the next words he spoke hit him with the force of a baseball bat.
“Jason is dead. He’s never coming back. Deny it now if you like, solnyshko. But you know I’m right. You are the Alpha and your sister is the Omega. I will hear you say it before we are done.”
Turning his head to come nearly nose to nose with Nikita, Jason glared at his tormentor with eyes red with rage and unshed tears.
“You’re going to wait a long fucking time.”
Nikita chuckled and patted Jason on the cheek.
“I have a lot of patience and experience getting what I want out of people. We’ll see how much stomach you have for watching my skills in operation.”
He walked to the door and paused.
“Be warned, boy. I acquired my knowledge from the very best teachers your planet had to offer. I hope for our little kitten’s sake your bravado has clay feet.”
🌍🌍🌍