Anomaly

Honestly, I never really understood Victor. To me, he was always just another employee of the organization—someone whose job was to contain anomalies and nothing more. I never thought I’d need to look past that superficial view, or that it would even be worth trying to understand who he really was.
At least, not until now. Ever since I caught that look from Victor, something changed. It’s like that expression is burned into my mind, replaying every time I close my eyes. Maybe it’s precisely because it was so different from how he usually acts—so far removed from the controlled coldness he always shows.
And that’s what bothers me. There was something in that look that carried weight, a warning, maybe even a silent plea. And no matter how hard I try, I just can’t ignore it. From what I’ve seen so far, Victor seems like a laid-back guy, almost carefree about most things—or at least, that’s the impression he gives.
Still, I know deep down that he really does care about people, even if he’s not exactly good at showing it. Maybe it’s because I’ve always caught those playful, almost mocking looks from him that his last one took me by surprise. There was something different in it, something way too serious, and it made me a little uneasy.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time I’d gotten a look like that. To be honest, I’d already lost count of how many times someone had shot me something similar inside the facility. Hatred, anger, contempt—you could feel it all in their eyes. But honestly, I never cared.
Why? Because I didn’t know any of them. There were no bonds, not even anything that could be called friendship to make me care. To me, they were just strangers passing by, like shadows, leaving no mark. But honestly, it wasn’t the look itself that made me this uncomfortable and anxious—it was who was giving it.
Victor. He, who had always treated me like I was just a curious little distraction, something to watch from afar, was now staring at me with a different intensity, almost too serious. I’d expect this kind of look from a lot of people... but never him.
Anyway, I was still in Emily’s room, sitting on the table with my arms resting at my sides. My eyes were fixed on my feet, swinging back and forth in an almost automatic rhythm, as if the motion could organize my thoughts.
I tried in vain to find some logic that would lead me to a conclusion about why Victor had looked at me that way. He hates anomalies—and he hates me, that I could understand, I could feel. But even so, there was something about the whole situation that made me restless, a growing frustration that seemed to settle deep in my chest.
Anyway, we were still in Emily’s room. Apparently, there was someone else she wanted to bring in to join us—though she hadn’t given me any details about who it might be. Deep down, I could only think of one possibility. And, of course, my intuition was right. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, the office door finally opened.
A woman walked in with confident steps, exuding quiet elegance. She wore thin-framed glasses and had her hair pulled back in a perfectly neat ponytail, giving her a serious, professional air. One look confirmed what I had suspected: it was Laura.
As soon as she entered, Laura let a bright smile spread across her face, like she wanted to light up the room with her energy: “I’m here, boss!” she announced, almost teasingly.
Her eyes quickly found Emily, and she took a few steps forward before continuing, curiosity clear in her voice: “You said you needed something from me... what exactly...”
But Laura’s words died in the air the moment her eyes landed on me, legs swinging on top of the table. I met her gaze for a few seconds in silence before slowly waving my little hands in an almost innocent gesture.
Laura kept looking at me, her brow slightly furrowed, like her mind had frozen for a moment and she didn’t know how to react. The next instant, her gaze shifted from Emily back to me, eyes moving between us like she was trying to piece together an invisible puzzle.
The confusion on her face was obvious, eyebrows slightly raised, mouth slightly open, before she finally asked, almost playfully bewildered: “Uh... why’s the little anomaly here? Is something going on and no one told me?”
After Laura’s question, Emily took a deep breath and calmly started explaining, giving a brief rundown of what was happening. Laura listened in silence, not interrupting once.
When Emily finished, however, the confusion hadn’t left Laura’s face—it had just changed. Her eyes stayed fixed on Emily, as if looking for an answer that wasn’t in the words she’d just heard.
Emily, noticing the discomfort, just shrugged, a tired half-smile appearing on her face: “She seems really troubled by this” she muttered to herself: “And it’s the first time I’ve seen an anomaly get so hung up on something so... human. Not wanting to be hated? Usually, all they want is to kill us”
I have no idea exactly what Laura took from Emily’s words, but before I could even process where this was leading, I felt her arms wrap around me. The hug was tight, carrying a silent weight, and when I looked at Laura’s face, I saw the sadness in her eyes.
“That Victor... he’s really a grumpy man!” she muttered, her voice thick as she squeezed me even tighter: “I mean, I get why he’s acting like this, but still... still, ughh!” She let out a frustrated sound, almost a grunt, burying her face in my shoulder: “I can’t accept this!”
Laura seemed to fully understand why Victor had looked at me that way—and it clearly pissed her off. Still, I noticed she was struggling to find words that could deny or explain that look, like the situation itself was too difficult to put into sentences.
The more I watched her, the more questions popped into my head. Just how serious was Victor’s situation? A knot formed in my stomach at the thought. At that moment, all I could do was hope it was something I still had a chance to fix.
Emily, who had been quietly observing the scene, let out a long, impatient sigh before finally speaking up. Her eyes quickly scanned everyone in the room, like she was trying to cut through the hesitation, and then she said in a firm yet slightly tired tone: “Now that Laura’s finally here, can we go already?”
But before she could say anything else, Emily paused mid-sentence. Her lips pressed together, and she stayed quiet for a brief moment, as if a new idea had just crossed her mind. Her gaze turned to me, serious and assessing, and for a few seconds, she just watched me thoughtfully.
Then her voice filled the hallway again, steady but carrying a mix of pragmatism and fatigue: “By the way... you can leave the facility without anyone seeing you, right?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Honestly, letting you leave the facility is already a breach of protocol in itself. But considering you keep slipping out of your containment cell, I doubt anyone would actually think you escaped the base. Still...” She let out a resigned sigh: “I’d rather not deal with a stack of extra paperwork later. So... it’s better if no one notices you leaving”
I wasn’t surprised by Emily’s words — truth be told, I had expected this request from her sooner or later. In the end, I just nodded silently, accepting it without resistance. Emily let a small, almost imperceptible smile slip at the corner of her mouth, but it carried satisfaction, and she murmured softly, “Good”
After that, Laura and Emily were the first to leave the room. How did I follow them without being noticed? The good old world of shadows — a silent, cold, colorless realm where only I can exist. There, nothing can see me, hear me, or even sense my presence.
I slid into that ethereal space and simply trailed them, my movements lazy and silent as I followed. We passed through corridors until we reached the surface, where the air felt slightly thicker than usual. When we emerged in the familiar warehouse, I watched Laura and Emily head toward the parking lot in front of the base, near the exit.
As soon as they got into a car, I seized the moment the doors closed and moved swiftly. In the blink of an eye, I reappeared in the physical world and calmly settled into the back seat, as if I had always been there, invisible to both of them.
The car was one of those sleek convertibles, with a retractable roof that could be raised or lowered with a simple click. Naturally, the top was closed — no need to take unnecessary risks. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to recognize me before the time was right.
Once we crossed the base perimeter and the open road stretched ahead, I felt my shoulders finally relax. A wave of relief washed over me, though fatigue still clung to me like a shadow.
Pretending to be a ghost, constantly lurking in the eyes of cameras and people, was more exhausting than I cared to admit. With a bored glance, I let my eyes wander over the landscape outside the dusty car window. There was nothing to see — just the endless, dry, monotonous desert stretching as far as the eye could see.
Emily and Laura stayed quiet too, and the only sounds were the steady hum of the engine and the occasional crackle of tires crushing loose stones on the road. Hours passed this way, heavy and unhurried, until time itself seemed to drag.
From time to time, Laura and Emily glanced at me through the rearview mirror, as if trying to check whether I was still intact. I avoided returning their gaze — not out of rudeness, but because the silence had become almost hypnotic.
I couldn’t say exactly how long had passed, but probably around two hours before the desert finally gave way to buildings and paved streets.
A strange mix of relief and anxiety washed over me as we crossed into the city. Our destination? A hospital. Yes, a seemingly ordinary hospital with a white façade and large windows.
As Emily and Laura stepped out of the parked car, I did the same — but like last time, I preferred to move through the world of shadows. Walking out in plain sight would be like sounding an alarm for the entire city that an anomaly was on the loose.
Definitely not a smart idea. Especially considering that, on average, about 70 to 80% of the world’s population consists of extremists demanding the eradication of anomalies at any cost.
Yeah... this was not the time to make myself a target. I’m not so desperate for attention that I’d expose myself on purpose — especially when it could end with an armed mob knocking at my door.
Anyway, the inside of the hospital looked surprisingly ordinary — white corridors, antiseptic smell, the distant echo of footsteps on the polished floor. But my mind was elsewhere.
Was that Sara, the one Victor had mentioned last time, really admitted here? If she was, did it mean her problem was just a frail body or some ordinary illness? That was a plausible explanation, yes, but something inside me told me it wasn’t the case.
Victor wouldn’t have looked at me that way if it were just that — there was something in his expression that mixed worry with something harder to decipher, maybe fear. I hadn’t heard the whole story yet, but one thing I was sure of: whatever was going on, it was way more complicated than I had imagined.