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Chapter One
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THE KEY MOARTE INFESTATION Scale. 22-year-old Zari Baltimore absently tested the words out in her mind as she got off the 5 train at Bowling Green and sprinted towards the nearest exit leading up to The Battery. From there, it was a few minutes' walk to her destination, one made even shorter because of her brisk pace...which everyone else around her easily matched.
It was just one of the many things she loved about the city, and with 449 days of residency now tucked under her belt, Zari was pretty much convinced that New York City was her spirit animal. The City That Never Sleeps might not be her forever home, but for now, it was what she needed.
With millions of people around her every minute of the day, she never had to worry about faking anything. She could be sad if she wanted, bawl out her miseries like a kid, and no one would notice. Everyone was just too busy and stressed, just too much in a hurry to go through their to-dos to care about anything else.
And that was exactly how Zari liked it, both for her sake and her job's.
Speaking of which...
Zari's steps came to a silent halt as she peered up the century-old building that AGNEX had assigned her to inspect for paranormal activity. Registered historic site, warehouse turned restaurant, Jazz nights on Thursdays, and spoken poetry on Saturdays.
Today, however, was Tuesday; it was that one day of the week the place was closed, and by the looks of it, even security seemed to have been given the night off.
After taking a couple of photos with her phone, Zari circled to the back and used the card key she had been given to gain entry.
A couple of seconds passed, and the scanner showed no signs of green-lighting her passage. While waiting, she tried to get a better feel of her surroundings. It was darker here, with no street lamps to cast away shadows and all the other things that went bump in the night. A lot more quiet, too, and - despite its unparalleled access and views of the Hudson River - remarkably empty of people. No tourists contorting themselves to capture the best night selfies, no homeless person camping out on the pavement - just nothing except this terribly oppressive silence that was marred only by the sudden beeping sound of the card reader.
Finally.
Zari shoved the card key back into her pocket and gave her arms a quick rub down to get rid of the goose bumps. While her mind had long adjusted to the otherworldly aspect of her work, the rest of her was an entirely different matter. The human body was physiologically designed to freak out on all things "unnatural", and this place was supposedly haunted...
A thick, ominous swath of darkness swelled up to greet her as soon as she let herself in, and Zari's heart started to race. An icy cold breeze brushed against her skin, and she was unable to keep herself from jumping a little as the door slammed shut on its own behind her.
Definitely haunted, but as to whether this was an ordinary infestation or not...
That part was where her soon-to-be-published study would come in, and with that in mind, Zari took her phone out and clicked on the app that she and Raffy had been working on.
The Key Moarte Infestation Scale
Part I: Ambient Paranormal Activity
1 point: Involuntary manifestation, e.g. cold spots and a permeating smell that is distinctly associative to the entity
2 points: Basic manifestation, e.g. disembodied voices and footsteps
3 points: Intermediate manifestation, e.g. movement of object or property without human agency
4 points: Verifiable motive behind manifestation
Taking her flashlight out of her pocket, Zari switched it on, and the light beamed straight down an empty kitchen hallway...just as something to her left skittered. She swung her light towards it right away, and this time she found her target, the light shining directly on the face of a child, blood streaming down from the empty holes of his eye sockets.
"Martin," Zari whispered.
A moment later, the boy started to run.
Fast.
So damn fast.
That before she knew it, his cold, dead arms were already wrapped around her waist, and the sound of his sobs were wrenching her heart into pieces.
****
SIRENS HAD BEEN WAILING nonstop for a while now, and despite the police strictly keeping everyone away from the crime scene, the crowd had only continued to swell by the minute, their numbers almost evenly split between paps and morbidly curious passers-by.
So far, twelve bodies - Martin's included - had already been unearthed from the nearby park. All boys, their ages ranging from six to ten, and just like Martin, they had their eyes ripped out before being buried alive.
Since Admin was responsible for alerting the authorities, Zari, seated on the front steps of Warehouse 57, was able to observe the whole scene unfold, alone and undisturbed.
There were supposed to be thirteen bodies in the mass grave Martin had led her to, but only a dozen had been found. #13 was still missing, and Zari had a feeling the number was not a coincidence.
On the train ride back to Hudson Yards, Zari typed a quick email for Raffy and tinkered some more with their app in hopes of keeping herself busy. And for a while, she succeeded. For a while, she forgot.
But once she was off the train and walking five stories up to her subsidized studio apartment—-
She tried.
She honestly tried.
But as soon as she was inside, the door locked, and her home security activated—-
Despair surged up, and Zari was already crying just like young dead Martin even before her knees had hit the hardwood floor.
It had been four years since she had last seen him.
Three years since he seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
And a year since anyone had last heard from Alexandru.
Most people thought him dead now, but all of them were wrong.
She would know if he were.
She couldn't not know, and it wasn't just because he was her Master and she was his pet.
She would know because she loved him, and he loved her, and God...
A sob rocked her body as Zari slowly curled herself into a ball. She closed her eyes, and another sob shook her to the core as memories of him instantly flooded her mind. She remembered how the sheer gorgeousness of him could easily take her breath away, remembered how the velvety wickedness of his
charm was always enough to make her blush, and most of all she remembered...
How good it felt, Zari thought painfully, just to be with him.
She remembered that one day he had visited her when she was still studying in LSL, and he had flicked her forehead hard enough to make her yelp in pain. 'What was that for?' she had demanded, and her Master had right away answered back in a mocking tone, 'Because you're too cute. Is that all you've learned in this school? Being cute and turning me on?'
Zari squeezed her eyes shut, but her tears refused to stop. It was those little things, just countless, silly little moments that she shared with Alexandru, just the little things really...
Those little things that kept her heart breaking even as she refused to lose hope.
I've kept my promise, Master.
I'm the one who can save lives now.
I'm strong...just like I promised.
So please keep your promise, too.
Come back.
I miss you so much.
Please come back.
Please.