“This must be one of the failed attempts at breeding a copy of Isidor from his DNA,” I spoke aloud.

I looked through the glass at the half-breed and watched as its jaws flapped loosely open and closed beneath the water. I couldn’t tell if this was a deliberate act on behalf of the creature or not. I hoped not. I hoped that it was dead and wasn’t suffering in some way.

Potter remained silent, and turning his back, he moved away from the window and came to rest in front of another set of glass panels. Again, it looked into an underwater chamber and inside this one floated what appeared to be a human girl. I gazed at her and she looked as if she were asleep. This time though, I had no difficulty in recognising who it was floating behind the glass. It was me, aged about eight-years-old.

On seeing the girl behind the glass I began to tremble.

“What’s wrong?” Potter asked, brushing my hand gently with the tips of his fingers.

Yanking his hand away, I pointed at the girl floating behind the glass and shouted, “That’s me! That’s me as a child!”

“What?” Kayla asked looking around at me.

Isidor was still staring blankly in at his deformed half-breed, his head tilted to one side. I knew that, just like me, seeing this other version of himself had disturbed him.

Seth seemed unmoved and said to me, “So this was you as a child? Cute!”

“Back off, Seth!” Potter ordered. “Can’t you see Kiera’s upset by this?”

“I was just admiring the Vampyrus’ creativity,” Seth smiled and winked at Eloisa.

“You call that thing in there creative?” I snapped at him. “That’s cruel. Whatever that might be in there is – was – living. It would have had feelings and emotions. How dare the Vampyrus do this to her – to me!”

“That’s like the Kayla-thing Isidor killed in that room at the monastery,” Potter said.

“Kayla what?” Kayla suddenly said. “What are you talking about, Potter?”

“Sorry, did someone forget to mention it, but there was a half-breed who looked just like you at this monastery we came across,” Potter started to explain. “Well, she had less hair than you and she was…”

“Potter!” I shouted at him. “Don’t you have any tact?”

“The girl needs to know the truth,” Potter said back. “You know the kid is like sixteen – you can’t protect her for the rest of her life.”

“What are you both talking about?” Kayla said, forcing her way between us.

“See that girl in there,” I said pointing to the eight-year-old me floating in the water. “That was just what I looked like as a girl. But what’s important, Kayla, is that in there isn’t me. That’s something the Vampyrus have tried to breed from my DNA.”

“So there are things out there that look like me?” Kayla asked, searching my eyes for the truth.

“Yes. But however much they try, they will never be able to make another me or you – we’re unique – and those things are just worthless copies.”

“It’s alive!” Eloisa suddenly said, and for the first time since meeting her, I could sense fear in her voice – but then again, maybe it was revulsion I could detect? I followed her bright yellow stare as she pointed at the younger-me floating in the water. The girl had opened her eyes and was staring at me. Although she looked like me in almost every way, her eyes were not hazel like mine but cold and black. Her skin was corpse white and wrinkled from being submerged in the water for too long. Her jet-black hair fanned out in the water like a mermaid’s fin. Kicking her legs, she swam towards the glass and looked at me. It was then that I noticed that it wasn’t just her legs that she used to propel herself through the water, but a set of fins – no – wings that grew from her back. Raising her one hand, she tapped slowly on the glass and the sound of her knocking sent gooseflesh down my spine. As if captivated by her stare, I inched towards the glass. With the tip of our noses almost touching, I felt an incredible wave of sadness come over me. I pitied her – I pitied me – but wasn’t that the same thing?

The girl opened her mouth as if to smile, but her lips turned upwards forming a cruel grin. I could see a row of razor-sharp teeth protruding through her gums. Then, without warning she began to smash her head into the glass as if trying to break it with her face.

“She’s alive!” Kayla shrieked, jerking backwards and away from the glass.

Shaking his head, Potter said, “Not alive like us. She doesn’t have feelings or senses.”

“How can you be so sure?” Kayla asked, not able to take her eyes off the glass.

“You try smashing your face in like that, and see if you feel it! She just exists,” Potter said, as he flipped a series of switches that were fixed to the wall by the window. “But not anymore.”

No sooner had he turned off the switches, the water drained out of the tank, like a bath having its plug removed. Sensing that she was in danger, the girl behind the window began to swish about, clutch at the water with her claws. As the last of the water drained from the tank, the girl collapsed onto her side. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she gasped several times, closed her eyes and fell still.

Potter turned away from the window and I followed. I couldn’t bear to look upon her – me – any longer. In my mind, I kept telling myself that she wasn’t me – she was a monster created in a laboratory like ‘Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein’. The girl had been a creature without a soul, just like the mutant back in the monastery. Potter had been right in turning off this girl’s life support. She had no right to life. But who was I or any of us to make that decision? Who had given us the power to play God? And then I thought of the choice that I would soon have to make and I almost had to stuff my knuckles into my mouth to stop myself from screaming.

Kayla, Seth, and Eloisa followed us across the room. As we reached the door that led from the chamber, I looked back to see Isidor still standing by the glass and looking at the boy who floated behind it. Isidor stood only inches from the glass. He had his hand pressed flat against it as if trying to make contact with the creature on the other side. Then to my surprise, Potter headed back towards him. He slowly raised his hand, flipped off the switches on the wall next to the tank. Then, placing his arm around Isidor’s shoulder, he guided him from the room, and as they went, I could see the silver streaks of tears on Isidor’s face.

Chapter Thirty-Five

We sat together in a large dinning hall which I guessed had been used by the staff at the facility. Kayla and I finished the remainder of the tinned fruit I had taken from the supermarket. That seemed so long ago now. So much had changed, and my head and heart were trying to play catch-up. However much I tried not to think about Ravenwood’s letter to me, it kept worming its way to the front of my mind. All I could think about was the decision he had left me to make.

I do not have to tell you that the burden on you is great. The fate of two entire races lies in your hands. The decision to destroy an entire race is not an easy one – so choose wisely, Kiera Hudson.

Over and over again those words kept going around and around in my mind, like a broken merry-go-round that couldn’t be stopped. I thought that if I burnt that message, then those words would fade away like ash on a breeze, but if anything, it had only seared those words into my mind like a brand on a farm animal.

Isidor sat alone at one end of the table. He wasn’t eating. He sat and stared at the blank wall in front of him. Potter had taken one of the bottles of Lot 13 and was drinking from it. He rolled one down the length of the table towards Isidor, but Isidor just let it roll on by.

“You need to keep your strength up, kid,” Potter said, but Isidor just kept staring at the wall. Part of me wanted to go to him and talk to him about what I had read in that message left by Ravenwood. I wanted to tell Kayla, too. But, I knew in my heart that it wasn’t the right time. How could I talk to them rationally about our importance if I didn’t really understand the consequences of it myself? No, I would wait – get everything set in my own mind before I burdened them with it. So, getting up from my seat, I took one of the opened cans of fruit and went to him.

Hooking my finger into the can, I plucked out a slimy, crescent-shaped peach slice and popped it into my mouth. “You know, although these things are bright enough to light up the dark, they taste good.”

Isidor ignored me.

“Isidor…” I started.

“They had no right,” he suddenly said, his voice soft but firm.

“Sorry?” I said back.

“Phillips and the others had no right to take my DNA, to operate on me, do tests on me, just so they could make that deformed-looking creature back there,” he said.

“They’ve done it to the three of us,” I said. “I know that doesn’t make it any easier, but you don’t have to go through this alone.”

“What do they want from us?” he whispered, not taking his eyes off the wall, as if deep in thought.

“We’re special, Isidor, but you already know that,” I said. “This man – Elias Munn – I think that’s his name or it used to be – believes that he can copy us, take our uniqueness and harness it in some way. But the thing is, Isidor, that isn’t you back there and it never will be. I know it’s hard, but just think of it as a bad piece of sculpture. It might bear some faint resemblance to you or even look just like you – but it can never be you.”

“I guess,” he said turning to look at me. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“Isidor, if there is one thing that I’ve learnt on this journey, it’s that whatever happens, all you can do is be true to yourself,” I said, “You can’t ever be more than that.”

With a faint smile, he said, “Thanks, Kiera.”

“What for?” I asked him.

“For being you,” he said. “Now where are those peach slices?”