Anomaly

Chapter 388 – Worship of the true gods [34]

(POV – Emily Parker)

Emily was completely confused. Up until now, she had always carried a certain pride in her intelligence, not an arrogant kind of pride, but a quiet certainty that her mind simply worked... better. From a very young age, while other kids struggled with seemingly simple problems, she solved them effortlessly. It was like seeing invisible paths that no one else even noticed. And that never changed.

Even as she grew older, that pattern remained untouched. To Emily, everything was simple, not in a shallow sense, but in a way that made it inevitably understandable. Any problem, no matter how complex it seemed at first glance, would eventually give in, as long as she was willing to dig deep enough. It was only a matter of time, analysis, and patience. There was always an answer. There was always logic.

Take math, for example. To her, it was nothing more than a mechanical game, a predictable sequence of numbers fitting together in a tedious way. She solved complex equations the same way someone might put together a child’s puzzle, without effort.

Even when facing problems considered worthy of geniuses, she felt nothing. No excitement. No satisfaction. No spark in her eyes. Because, in the end, there was no mystery. And to Emily, if something could be fully explained, then there was no reason to feel any sense of wonder about it.

Maybe that very aspect of her was what caught the organization’s attention. Emily still remembered clearly the day she was recruited. She had been sitting in a small, nearly empty café, the smell of freshly brewed coffee lingering in the air, casually scrolling through information on her phone.

That was when two people, dressed in black, discreet, and far too strange to be ordinary customers, approached her table. They introduced themselves as members of some kind of intelligence task force. At that moment, Emily’s first thought was simple and direct: she had gotten herself into some kind of government trouble. And honestly... it wasn’t such an absurd assumption.

Emily had always had a compulsive curiosity, a constant need to discover, to understand, to go beyond what was allowed. She searched for answers in places most people wouldn’t even think to look, especially when there was even the slightest chance of finding something... different. Something that could spark a rare sense of novelty within her. And it was precisely that curiosity that led her to cross a few lines.

Let’s just say her record wasn’t exactly clean when it came to breaking into government systems. Small incursions here and there, security tests nobody asked for, doors that definitely shouldn’t have been opened... nothing she personally considered “serious” even though anyone else would strongly disagree.

After all, most normal people wouldn’t risk drawing the attention of government agencies just to try and confirm whether aliens actually existed. Emily, on the other hand... clearly wasn’t most people.

Fortunately, Emily had the sense, or maybe just the survival instinct, to back off before things spiraled out of control. Messing with government matters wasn’t just risky; it was the kind of mistake that could affect the people she cared most about. And that, to her, was unacceptable. Still, the past doesn’t just disappear that easily.

It was hard to blame her for reacting defensively. There were plenty of stories, people who vanished without a trace after getting involved, even superficially, with government institutions. Stories buried in obscure forums, strange reports, names that simply ceased to exist. Emily knew those stories.

And yet, she chose to follow the men. Not even in her wildest dreams, the kind that made her wake up in the middle of the night with her heart racing, could Emily have imagined what was truly waiting for her when she decided to go with them. Not that she had much of a choice, in the end. But that... that’s just a detail.

The first facility Emily visited wasn’t exactly dedicated to anomalies, at least, not in the most extreme sense of the word. It was a sector focused on objects. Objects that appeared ordinary, most of them classified as partially harmless, kept under observation more as a precaution than out of urgent necessity. Still, it only took a single glimpse.

Even without life, those objects displayed behaviors that defied any logical expectation. That alone was enough to ignite something within Emily, a deep, unsettling curiosity. What were those objects, really? Why did they behave that way? What set them apart from other identical items, perfectly normal, produced under the same conditions?

Those questions began echoing relentlessly in Emily’s mind, refusing to fade. She couldn’t ignore them, and deep down, she didn’t want to. She could feel that there was something... something deeply wrong, and at the same time, irresistibly fascinating. Noticing her growing interest, the organization decided to take her one step further.

That was when Emily was introduced to the anomalies. Unlike the objects, they didn’t follow any consistent pattern. Each one had its own unique form, its own presence. Some still lingered at the edge of comprehension, taking the shape of inanimate objects with unusual properties. Others, however, went far beyond that.

There were entities made of flesh, or something that merely resembled it, displaying abilities that defied not just logic, but the very structure of known laws. No matter how much Emily analyzed, measured, or tested, nothing made sense.

It was like trying to force the impossible into a system that simply had no room for it. The rules didn’t apply. Explanations didn’t exist. And yet... there they were. Beings and objects that completely escaped human understanding, not due to a lack of study, but because they seemingly existed outside any framework that could even be studied.

In the years that followed, Emily saw everything, and then some. In such a short time, she accumulated experiences that would shatter the sanity of any ordinary person. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say the human mind simply wasn’t built to handle the kind of knowledge she carried now... And to be honest, Emily really did break.

Or she would have broken completely, if it weren’t for an anomalous object. This particular object could select, isolate, and store specific memories, as if it were organizing a library inside her mind. Some memories were locked away and sealed, while others, carefully preserved, could only be retrieved when needed.

Without it, without that artificial filter, Emily would probably be locked away in a mental institution, lost in a storm of voices, images, and sensations that would never stop. But that wasn’t what was bothering her now. Despite everything, despite still being functional, conscious, whole, Emily couldn’t understand. Something was wrong. She simply couldn’t comprehend... how she was still alive.

Emily was dead. Of that, she was absolutely certain. Just seconds ago, there had been no doubt: she had been completely torn apart, reduced to something unrecognizable, a living mass of shredded flesh, with parts of her body simply missing. And yet, for a few cruel, fleeting moments, her consciousness had lingered, trapped in that grotesque state, a glimpse of hell that dragged on for seconds that felt like an eternity.

And then... she was alive. The contrast was brutal. Her mind still held a vivid memory of the pain, as if the suffering had rooted itself into every fragment of her being. The sensation hadn’t completely faded, on the contrary, it still throbbed, ghostlike and persistent, beneath her intact skin. The smell of blood filled her nostrils. Thick. Metallic. Warm.

Emily blinked, dazed, her eyes taking a moment to focus. Red dominated her vision, a crimson pool slowly spreading across the floor, thick and glossy, reflecting the light in a strange way. The subtle sound of liquid dripping seemed absurdly loud in her ears. Blood. Her blood.

The realization made her stomach twist violently. A knot tightened in her throat, and a sudden wave of nausea surged upward, threatening to break her composure. For a second, she thought she might throw up right there, that everything inside her would come spilling out at once.

But she held it in. Gritted her teeth. Held her breath. Forced her body to obey. Don’t think. Don’t remember. Don’t relive those seconds. Her fingers trembled slightly, and she barely noticed when she clenched them into fists, as if that could anchor her to reality. Beside her, Laura... wasn’t as lucky. The sound, low, uneven, gave it away. A gag, maybe.

“Bluurrgghhhh!” Emily recognized the sound of vomiting almost instantly, coming from somewhere nearby. Turning her head, she found Laura crouched on the ground, her body hunched in on itself.

Her legs trembled uncontrollably, as if they could barely hold her up, and her shoulders jerked with each violent spasm. The contents of her stomach spilled out without restraint, splattering across the floor and forming a thick, nauseating pool, its acidic smell quickly spreading through the air. Even so, Emily felt no disgust, not toward Laura. She couldn’t blame her.

Not after what they’d been through. Because Emily understood. She understood that grotesque, indescribable sensation perfectly, the deep revulsion of, for a few seconds, ceasing to be something human, becoming nothing more than a shapeless mass of flesh... and then, as if nothing made sense, coming back. Returning to something even remotely recognizable.

Emily didn’t even have time to thank [Angel of Death] for... whatever it was she had done. The next instant came like a sharp, inevitable blow. The same invisible, brutal force that had killed Emily and Laura tore through the space once again, striking [Angel of Death] head-on and violently hurling her out of the church.

The impact echoed through the walls, mixing with the smell of dust and splintered wood that was beginning to fill the air. For a brief second, the world seemed to slow down. Then Emily turned her gaze to the priest.

Her heart was still racing, and her mind struggled to keep up with everything that had just happened, but in the middle of the chaos, a thought formed with terrifying clarity. There was no doubt, no hesitation, no room for interpretation.

That man was completely insane. Not just unstable... but dangerously unhinged. There was something wrong in his eyes, something that went beyond simple fanaticism or desperation, a deep, disturbing distortion, as if he were seeing a reality that existed only for him. It was probably the first time Emily had ever crossed paths with someone so utterly insane.