Chapter 14 – What Is He Made Of

【Esdeath PoV】

I arrived at the control room two hours before his shift started.

Paranoia was keeping me functional these days, that and enough coffee to kill a normal person. I settled into my chair and pulled up the camera feeds for Cellblocks Seven, Nine, and Twelve. The problem sectors. The ones that had been spiraling out of control for months.

If this Kai Evans could handle even one of them, I’d consider it a miracle.

The morning briefing had been a disaster. Half the guards called in sick when they heard someone new was starting. The other half placed bets on how long he’d last before having a complete psychological breakdown. Current odds were forty-eight hours maximum.

I sipped my coffee and watched the monitors.

Thalia’s cell showed the usual nightmare. Frost covering every surface, shadows moving independently of any light source, and that oppressive cold that made the cameras glitch. She’d been in a mood for three days straight. Yesterday she’d frozen a guard solid just for making eye contact.

Loki’s sector was pure chaos. Furniture spinning through the air, walls shifting through impossible colors, and reality treating physics like a polite suggestion. She’d turned the hallway floor into an infinite void last night. Took six hours to convince her to fix it.

Block Twelve was dark. The Thing preferred it that way. Cameras showed nothing but empty shadows, but I knew she was there. Watching. Waiting. Hungry.

“Director?”

Martinez stood in the doorway, looking nervous.

“The new guard is here. He’s in processing now.”

“Send him to orientation first. I want him to understand exactly what he’s walking into.”

“Ma’am, he requested to skip orientation. Said his father already briefed him.”

Of course he did. Patient Zero probably thought safety protocols were hilarious.

“Fine. Send him to Block Seven when he’s ready.”

Martinez hesitated.

“Are you sure? Thalia’s been asking about him all morning. She knows he’s coming.”

That made my stomach drop. Thalia knowing things she shouldn’t was never a good sign.

“How does she know?”

“No idea, ma’am. But she’s been counting down the hours since midnight.”

I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my temples where a headache was building.

“Just send him in. I’ll be monitoring from here.”

Twenty minutes later, I watched Kai Evans walk into Cellblock Seven.

He looked exactly like his photo. Average height, dark hair that needed a cut, wearing the standard guard uniform like it was a college hoodie. He carried a tablet under one arm and walked with his hands in his pockets. Zero tension in his shoulders. No fear in his posture.

Either he was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.

The pressure in Block Seven should have dropped him to his knees. Every guard who entered that sector felt Thalia’s presence like a weight crushing their chest. Trained soldiers had panic attacks just standing in that hallway.

Kai walked up to her door and checked his watch.

“You’re early.”

Thalia’s voice came through the intercom, smooth and dangerous.

“Traffic was good.”

I leaned forward, watching the exchange on three different camera angles.

“We’re in an underground facility in the middle of nowhere.”

“Metaphorical traffic.”

Was he seriously joking with her? I pulled up his vitals from the bio-monitor. Heart rate steady. Blood pressure normal. Stress hormones baseline.

Impossible.

The seventeen locks disengaged one by one. I tensed, ready to hit the emergency lockdown. Thalia had never voluntarily opened her door for anyone. This had to be a trap.

Kai pushed the door open and stepped inside like he was visiting a friend.

Thalia stood in the center of her cell, looking exactly like the nightmare she was. Tall, beautiful, dangerous, with eyes that held infinity and madness in equal measure. The air around her rippled with cold that made the cameras frost over.

She moved closer to him, each step deliberate.

“You came.”

“Said I would.”

“Two minutes early. I noticed.”

My jaw clenched. She’d frozen a guard yesterday for being thirty seconds late. Now she was praising this guy for being early?

“Figured you’d notice. You notice everything.”

Thalia stopped inches from him. Close enough that the unnatural cold radiating from her skin should have given him frostbite. She reached up to trace his jaw with one finger.

“I’ve been waiting for you. Since the moment I felt you enter the facility six years ago.”

My blood went cold. Six years ago was when Thalia first arrived. The same day Patient Zero turned himself in.

“That’s a long time to wait.”

“An eternity. But you’re here now.”

She leaned in close, lips near his ear.

“Mine.”

I waited for him to panic. To back away. To do literally anything a sane person would do when claimed by a cosmic horror.

He stepped back gently, putting professional distance between them.

“Let’s start with the daily checkup. How are you feeling today?”

Thalia’s expression shifted. Something almost like surprise crossed her perfect face.

“You’re not afraid of me.”

“Should I be?”

“Everyone is afraid of me.”

“I’m not everyone.”

She laughed, the sound rolling through the cell like distant thunder. On my monitors, the temperature readings started to normalize. The oppressive cold that had been building for days began to dissipate.

What the hell was happening?

They talked for twenty minutes. Actual conversation, not the usual desperate negotiations we had to do. Thalia showed him her books, her plants, the furniture she’d requisitioned. He asked questions about her well-being like a doctor doing rounds. Professional but not cold. Present but not invasive.

When he left, Thalia smiled. An actual smile, soft and genuine.

“Tomorrow?”

“Same time.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

The door closed. All seventeen locks engaged. And Thalia returned to her couch, looking more relaxed than I’d ever seen her.

I checked the sector readings three times. Temperature normal. Pressure normal. No reality distortions detected.

He’d just walked into the most dangerous cell in the facility and walked out after making the inmate happy.

Martinez’s voice came through my headset.

“Ma’am, he’s heading to Block Nine now.”

I switched camera feeds, pulling up Loki’s sector.

The chaos goddess was waiting. She materialized in the center of her cell the moment Kai’s bio-signature appeared in the hallway. Her eyes were amber, which meant she was planning something.

“Kai, you’re finally here!”

She knew his name. Of course she knew his name. Loki probably knew his entire life story.

“Hey Loki.”

Casual. Like they were old friends.

“Kai, Kai, Kai, you’re new! Do you know how bored I’ve been without you, Kai?”

I counted. Four times in two sentences. Was she doing that on purpose?

“You seem pretty entertained to me.”

A chair floated past his head, spinning lazily. He didn’t even flinch.

“Let’s play a game, Kai!”

Oh no. Not the games. Loki’s games had hospitalized guards before.

“I’m on duty. No games.”

“But Kai, you’re no fun when you’re being professional! Come on, Kai, just one tiny little game?”

She put on her innocent face, the one that preceded psychological warfare.

“What kind of game?”

I reached for the emergency response button. This was going to go bad fast.

“A riddle game, Kai! I ask you three riddles, and if you get them all right, I behave for a whole week. But if you get even one wrong, Kai, you have to stay and play with me for an extra hour.”

I paused. That was actually reasonable for Loki. Suspiciously reasonable.

Kai considered it, his expression thoughtful.

“Fine. Three riddles. But if I catch you cheating—”

“Kai, I never cheat! I bend rules, sure, but cheating? That’s beneath me, Kai.”

They went through the riddles. Classic ones with Loki’s twisted answers. He lost the first, won the second, and nailed the third with an answer about obsession that made Loki’s entire face light up.

“Kai, you’re half right! The answer I was looking for was obsession, Kai!”

She was practically vibrating with excitement. The furniture in her cell started spinning faster, but it was joyful chaos instead of threatening chaos. I could see the difference in how the objects moved.

“So I won. You behave for a week.”

“Yes, Kai, you won fair and square! I’ll be on my absolute best behavior, Kai, I promise!”

A week of Loki behaving. Do you know how valuable that was? I’d offered her everything from upgraded furniture to expanded privileges. She’d never agreed to more than a day.

He’d gotten a week with three riddles.

When he left, Loki was floating upside down, grinning like she’d won the lottery.

I sat back in my chair, staring at the monitors.

Two of the worst inmates. Thirty minutes total. Zero incidents. Both of them happy.

“Ma’am?”

Martinez again.

“He’s asking permission to visit Block Twelve.”

The Thing. The shapeshifter who fed on fear and killed through possession.

“Tell him no. That’s too dangerous for a first day.”

“He says The Thing requested him specifically. She’s been quiet all morning waiting.”

I pulled up Block Twelve’s feeds. The darkness had receded slightly. I could actually see the outline of the cell now, shadows pulling back like curtains.

She was making herself visible. For him.

“Fine. But full tactical team on standby. Any sign of trouble and we extract him immediately.”

“Yes ma’am.”

I watched Kai approach Block Twelve. The hallway there was always cold, always dark, always wrong. Guards hated patrol duty in that sector.

He stopped outside her cell and checked his tablet.

“Sarah? That’s what you want to be called?”

A voice drifted from the darkness. Feminine, hungry, desperate.

“You remembered.”

“It was in your file. Says here you prefer that name.”

“No one reads the files. They just call me Thing. Monster. It.”

Kai’s expression softened slightly.

“That sucks. Sarah’s a nice name.”

Silence.

Then a shape emerged from the shadows. Vaguely humanoid, constantly shifting, with too many eyes and not enough form. The Thing in her natural state, the appearance that drove people insane.

Kai didn’t look away.

“You’re not screaming.”

“Should I be?”

“Everyone screams.”

“I’m not everyone.”

The exact same thing he’d said to Thalia.

The Thing moved closer, studying him with dozens of eyes that blinked independently.

“You’re not afraid. I can’t feel your fear. I’m so hungry, and you have nothing for me to eat.”

“Sorry about that. Must be frustrating.”

“It is. But you’re still here. You came even though I can’t feed on you.”

“It’s my job. Plus, I figured you might want to talk.”

“Talk?”

“Yeah. When’s the last time someone just talked to you?”

The Thing went very still. All her eyes focused on him at once.

“Never.”

They talked for fifteen minutes. About nothing important. How she was feeling. If she needed anything. Basic welfare check questions that should have been standard but clearly hadn’t happened in years.

When Kai left, The Thing retreated into her shadows again. But the darkness was softer somehow. Less oppressive.

I sat in the control room, surrounded by monitors showing three of the worst nightmares in captivity, all of them calm for the first time in months.

Kai Evans walked down the hallway toward the exit, hands in his pockets, looking tired but satisfied.

I pulled up his file again. Read through his background, his qualifications, his genetic immunity inherited from Patient Zero.

Let’s see what he’s made of, the Warden had said.

I was starting to understand.

He wasn’t made of fear or bravado or special training. He was made of something these monsters had never experienced before.

Basic human decency.

And somehow, that was enough to make the impossible look easy.

I closed the file and reached for my coffee.

This was either going to save the facility or destroy everything I’d worked for.

Possibly both.