Monday, November 21, 2005

Character Sketches: Luka Freeman
Time: 2:42 NIGHT
Location: Unknown


He raced down the hall, gun in hand, the information locked away within his head. He would reach the ship in time—he had to. Otherwise, he knew he was a dead man.

“Rain!” crackled a voice in his ear, “What are you doing?”

“Just had to dodge a few Sentries, Red Tail.” Rain smiled as he ducked through an unused passage. “Don’t you worry about a thing.”

The radio crackled. “That’s what you say all the time. And then Rio and me wind up saving your ass.” Even through the wireless communication, Rain could hear the playful joke in Red Tail’s voice. It was heartening, and briefly made him feel better under the circumstances.

“What did you see?” Red Tail again.

Rain rounded a corner, and let out a groan in response. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yeah, I do. If it matters to the mission, then I wanna know.”

Typical. Rain was bothered by the man’s obsession with his job for once, and he knew the cause without even thinking about it.

“It…was a girl.”

“A GIRL?”

“Yes.” A girl, displayed in silence as if she were asleep or dead, who was lovely in her nakedness. She was an Angel who had been captured and displayed in an exhibition, her slim arms wrapped around herself and her legs tucked under her chin in a failed attempt to protect herself.

Rain knew. He knew that Genesis had begun.

“Talk to me, Rain. What are you thinking?”

“I think that I need to get out of here.” There was a tingling sensation on the back of his neck and a pit in the depths of his stomach, both clear signs to retreat even if his consciousness failed to pick up on any.

He deftly released the catch on the grate that covered his exit, and pulled it into the passage with him. Not long later he lowered himself, feet first, from the passage and set the grate gently within. He turned around, and cursed under his breath.

Sentries. Hundreds of them. Lined up in rows throughout the large room as if they were resting, but Rain knew better than to be deceived. If he were to walk amidst them cat-like, he knew that they would awaken in an instant.

If they saw him when they awoke, nothing under Heaven would save him.

“Red Tail. Abort.” He spoke into the radio urgently, his normally playful voice tense.

“What are you joking at, Rain?”

“No joke. Abort, Red Tail. Now.” Even as he spoke he saw their eyes opening and flaring with their formidable glow. He backed up against the wall he had just entered from, but knew that his efforts were useless.

A Sentry sensed his movement, and ceased resting to find the source. It crept closer to him, gaze paralyzing him as it pierced to the bone.

Rain cursed. For a moment he wildly thought of the girl at the bar, with her soft eyes and sweet smelling hair. He thought of his promise, but his hopes for their future were shattered against the unyielding wall as the Sentry slammed Rain into it.
***

Luka awoke with a start, his covers drenched with sweat and his heart pounding so hard he swore he had met with the burning rage of hell and survived.

A deep breath…one…two…and exhale. Luka sat up in bed and lowered his head in his hands, silently cursing the dream once more. It was a recurring theme, one that featured the same man trying different methods to escape, and never succeeding. It was his fate, to end up in the hands of the Sentries that guarded Genesis. His ultimate purpose for Luka Freeman was to provide the young man with a glimpse of something he should have known.

“Damn you, Rain.” Luka muttered the words as he got out of bed, groping through the darkness and stumbling over to the bathroom. Without bothering to turn the lights on he opened the tap, held his hands under it, and splashed his face with the cold water. He thought momentarily of the girl in the bar that Rain had feelings for—and of a lovely female voice singing a song he didn’t recognize—only to push the thoughts aside with another shock of cold water.

It wasn’t right. It was never right. Why these dreams plagued him was not something he knew, and he knew that he would never truly know.

He dried his face, and stumbled back to bed. Before falling back into the pile of pillows and sheets he glanced at the glowing red digits of his clock.

2:57 NIGHT.

Remembering that tomorrow was going to be an important day, he rolled over in his bed and dropped back into sleep.

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