Miraculous: Tales of the Unknown (11 page)

“The one that will save
us.”

I sigh. I wish they’d just
tell me what they’re talking about.

“She looks so
young.”

“The younger, the better.”
he says. “Now, who was taken?”

“I don’t know. That’s all
I know. I was told to come get you.”

“Lead me to who sent you.”
Before they leave, he turns to the others with us. “Make sure she’s
comfortable. Get her ready for what’s to come, if you can. Don’t
overdue it.”

“Yes, sir,” they chime in
unison.

“Excellent,” he responds
before following the little girl.

“What am I?” I ask slowly.
Dread twists within me, grasping me with cool hands.

“What we are,” a blue
creature says.

“A
monster
?”

“No, no. We’re nothing
like that.”

“Oh, really? You just
kidnapped me.”

“Because we need
you.”

“So that makes you a
monster.”

“No,” he insists. “Not at
all.”

“I don’t believe
you.”

“You don’t have to,” a
light green one answers.

I narrow my eyes. “Where
are we?”

“A spaceship.”

“You’ve got to be kidding
me,” I groan.

“We don’t kid,” the blue
one speaks up.

I roll my eyes.
How did this happen? How can I be connected to
these creatures?

“Why am I
here?”

None of them responds. I
glanced at each of them, my eyes seeking for answers.

“Well?” I
prompt.

“You have to help us rule
the world,” the blue one says, stepping forward.

“Rule the world?” I echo.
“Why me?”

“We don’t know. You were
in a prophecy.”

“A prophecy?” I repeat
unbelievingly.

“Yes, Chosen
One.”

“What does that even
mean?”

“We don’t
know.”

“What
do
you know? How is this supposed to
go?”

“First, you must learn,”
he replies, inclining his head towards the doorway.

“Learn?” I ask, my heart
beginning to race. “What if I don’t want this?”

“There’s no going back
once you’re one of us.”

“But I didn’t choose
this!”

“Doesn’t matter. Come, we
must show you the rest of the ship.”

“Your new home,” the light
green one adds.

This can’t be
happening.
Except it is. I’m now a
monster-and not of my choosing. I can never go back, no matter how
much I want to. I have to go on. I have no choice.

The spaceship has all
kinds of green lights flickering, soft beeping noises as stations
are worked at. It looks…amazing. I gasp as I take it all in. I look
up only to see the dark night sky and twinkling stars.

“Wow,” I
whisper.

A few of the creatures
peer up at us as we pass. I advert my eyes quickly while my
companions nod at them.

“Prisoner?” I heard a
female voice murmur to the blue one.

“Far from it.”

I then caught my
reflection in a smooth glass surface. I gasp, my eyes widening. My
blonde hair was much lighter, and a green hue covers my body. My
eyes shone their unusual blue, but it was disappearing, leaving
behind a glimmering red.
This can’t be
me.

“No,” I say softly,
horrified. “No way.”

“Something
wrong?”

“What happened to me?” I
can’t get my voice above a whisper. “Why am I like
this?”

My eyes stays glued to my
appearance. My breathing goes shallow. I watch as my skin shimmers
a ghastly green, and my eyes flares a harsh red. I touch my cheek;
I notice my hand’s shaking and I clench it into a fist. I swallow,
fear boiling within me.

“You’re one of us now,”
Blue answers my question, trailing his claw down my spine. I
shiver, slightly pulling away.

“W-why do I look like
this?”

“We don’t know. I’d say
since you were a human-and the Chosen One-this is how you’re
supposed to look.”

“That doesn’t help.” I try
to keep my voice calm, but I can feel my anger slipping. How could
they do this to me? “I don’t want to look like this.”

“We can’t help
that.”

“Damn it!” I exclaim. “Why
me? Why do I have to be the one?”
Why am I
the one taken from my family?
These
questions ring in my ears, bouncing around my head.
Why why why?
I sigh,
knowing there’s no answers. It is what it is, I suppose. I’ll just
have to sadly except it.
No.

You know you can’t. No
matter how much you try. Your family will always be on your mind.
Be careful, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself in to. You
make one mistake and your family could die.

That voice penetrates the
silence, saying the very things I hoped to never hear. I can’t let
that happen. Not now, not ever. It doesn’t matter what I look like
or who I am, my family isn’t going to be hurt because of
me.

Then be
careful.

“Chosen One, come. We
still have a lot to show you.”

I blink, focusing on Blue.
“Please stop calling me that,” I request, my eyes piercing his. “My
name’s Lily. If anything, call me that.”

“Don’t you want to be the
Chosen One?” a female asks, her scaly skin a shimmering
red.

No. I don’t want any of
this.
But I knew I couldn’t say that. I’d
be risking everything. So I simply lied. “I don’t know.”

“Whether you do or not,
it’s out of your hands. You
are
the One. Live up to it.”

“I’m sick of being called
it,” I snap. “Please go by my real name or nothing.”

A long moment passes
before the blue creature replies. “As you wish.”

“Thank you,” I mutter as
I’m shuffled forward. “What next?”

None of them answers. I’m
herded through a doorway, and I suddenly stop. My eyes widen as I
survey my surroundings. We were standing on a platform encircled
with glass running on both sides, ensuring no one falls off. There
was a spiral staircase, circling from top to bottom. I glance down,
my stomach flipping as I realize how far up I am. My breathing
slows as I step back, now standing in the center.

“What is it?” the blue one
asks me, turning his red eyes to what’s beyond the
railing.

“N-nothing,” I stammer, my
body beginning to shake.

“Come over here, then.
It’s okay, you won’t fall off.”

“You don’t know
that.”

“It’s been like this for
forever. No one has yet.”

No one has yet.
But that doesn’t mean someone won’t. I tell them
as much, sinking down onto my knees.

“It’ll be okay,” the green
one speaks up. “We won’t let you fall.”

I’m still unsure, but I
slowly make my way over there. I stop before I can look over the
railing. “What is this place?”

“It’s almost like a lab,”
the blue ones says, his crimson eyes sparkling.

“I’m amazed you know
anything about a lab.”

“We’re not dumb,” a new
voice says.

I whirl around, my eyes
finding a purple female. Her eyes were a pretty red, twirling from
dark to light and back again. Her scales shines under the dim
lighting. She almost looks like a diamond.

“I never said you
were.”

“You implied
it.”

“I’m sorry if I offended
you.”

“You would never
understand what it takes to be this,” she snaps.

“What?” Her words leaves
me confused. I try to make sense of them, but find I
can’t.

“She’ll learn,” the green
one says, shooting her a glare. “She only just turned.”

“She won’t know as much,”
the blue adds.

“I can tell.”

“What do you mean? How was
I turned?” I ask. Fear trembles within me, but I ignore
it.

“It’s complicated to
explain,” the blue ones says to me.

“Well, make it less
complicated.”

“We can’t,” the purple
creature interjects.

“Try.”

Silence fills the space
around us. I bite my lip, waiting for them to object, to call me
crazy or something. But they don’t. Instead, neither one of the
creatures speaks, but just stares at me. I begin to grow
uncomfortable, my stomach flipping with nerves.

Finally the blue one says,
“Okay. Well, I guess it freezes your nerves, killing and
transferring them to the DNA we have. It takes a few days-sometimes
more, depending on who it is.”

“Who it is?” I cut
in.

“Yes, some people’s bodies
don’t understand what’s happening and rejects it.”

“Meaning?” I
prompt.

“They’ll die.”

It bothers me how calmly
he spoke those words. It’s as if he doesn’t care if they die or
not. Like humans are just their pawns. It’s sickening.

And, yet, I’m one of
them.

I involuntarily shiver,
goose bumps rising on my flesh. How can I be one of these
creatures? I’m nothing like them-I don’t want to be anything even
remotely close to them. They’re monsters. I didn’t want to hear
another word, but the blue creature goes on, unaware of the hatred
that’s sparking inside me.

“The subject is then
turned into one of us, scales sometimes growing on their flesh
immediately or developing slowly. Their bodies takes time to
develop everything we can do and the same looks as us, but it’s
done.”

“Humans are just you’re
subjects?”

“Usually, yes.”

“That’s not right!” I
exclaim.

“We need to live, little
one.”

“Can’t you live in a
different way?”

“No,” the purple one says,
bringing the worst blow. “We can’t nor won’t.”

“We have to survive,” the
green one adds.

“I got that part,” I
mutter.

“Come see our
lab.”

I start to object, but he
grabs a hold of me, making me stumble forward. I gasp as I quickly
grab the railing, afraid I’ll fall off. I close my eyes briefly,
only opening them when I feel a small jab in my rib
cage.

“Watch it next time,” I
warn the green monster. “You promised I won’t fall off. You better
keep it.”

“Just look.”

I did as he said, but only
because I know I don’t have a choice. Small beeping machines line
the walls, flashing all kinds of colors. A much bigger machine
looms in the middle of the lab, with several of the monsters
swarming around it, pushing buttons before moving off to a smaller
one. I let my gaze roam upwards, taking in what’s directly across
from me. Metal doors line the walls; more of the monsters move
around over there, coming in and out of the rooms.

“Can we move on?” I ask
faintly.

“If we must.”

“We must,” I
confirm.

“Fine,” the blue one says.
He pulls away from the railing and steps backward onto a black
strip. He waits until we’re all on before pushing a red button and
the black strip moves us along, farther into the room. I got to see
new parts of the lab like metal tubes, and cots full with patents.
I sigh as I jerk my gaze away, gluing it on the black under my
feet.

“Why are you showing me
this?”

“Because you need to see
everything,” Blue replies.

“What if I don’t want to
see it all?”

“That’s too bad. You have
to in order to be able to save us.”

“And if I don’t want to
save you?”

“You have no
choice.”

“Oh, I don’t?” I snap,
raising my eyebrows.

“Not at all. You’re the
only one who can do this.”

“Do what?” I ask before
answering my own question. “Oh, right. To destroy
humanity.”

I shiver as those words
left my lips. The full realization hits me and I stagger a few
steps back. They want me to destroy humanity. They want me to help
them take over the world. But I can’t. That’d mean killing my
family and friends. I was already shaking my head as my breathing
goes ragged. No, I don’t think I could.

“Don’t even go there,” the
blue one says, as if reading my thoughts. “This is really
important.”
“So are those lives,” I retort.

“So are we,” the purple
creature flings at me.

“Can’t you live on a
different planet?” I demand, my heart racing.

“No planet is safe anymore
except the earth.”

“What do you
mean?”

Silence rings loud and
clear, no one wanting to speak up. I glance at each of the monsters
as the moment drags out.