Skyfall

I pounded on the door, choking on the acrid smoke that was beginning to fill my bedroom. I slumped against it, my eyes watering, and was shunted onto the floor as someone opened my door from the outside.

“Alexa!” arms wrapped around me and lifted me to my feet. I leant against my rescuer, and it was only when my cheek brushed against the soft velvet of his jacket that I realised it was Louis. “Are you alright? Talk to me!”

“I’m fine,” I wheezed. “The candles, they fell over-”

“Oh jeez,” his eyes found the blaze on the other side of the room, the heat pressing in on us. “Come on, this way.”

This wasn’t going at all to plan. I was almost considering fighting my way away from him when Calista and several others appeared in the hallway.

“Let me take her, sir,” Calista was saying firmly, and her hands, considerably stronger than Louis’ hold, pulled me into her grasp. “I think the others could use some assistance.”

Thank the stars for Calista! In one move, she’d put us back on track with our plan.

“Uh, sure,” Louis said, not sure when he’d lost the command of the situation. “Take care of her.”

“This way,” Calista murmured to me as Louis disappeared into my room. She pulled me towards the elevator, and shoved her hand against the doors. I looked away as her eye glowed, the only evidence that she was communicating with the machinery.

“Are we leaving right now?”I asked, confused. This all seemed way too easy.

“No,” Calista replied as the doors opened and we stepped swiftly into the elevator. “We’re going to record your voice so that it recognises you as an official ID.”

The doors closed behind us and we began to ascend.

“Why?” I asked in a small voice.

Calista took a deep breath.

“Because I’m not coming with you,” she said finally.

“Why not? Calista, please, you can’t stay here-”

“It’s not safe for me to go with you.”

“What? What does that mean?”

The elevator dinged softly and opened onto a much less sparse hallway than the one we’d just departed. Calista grabbed my upper arm and dragged me along it.

“You need to get out of this tower ASAP. I’d send you away right now if it weren’t for the security detail waiting for you in the car park.”

I chewed my lip.

“They know I want to escape?”

Her curt nod made me tremble. So much for the element of surprise.

“Whenever we’ve been together, they’ve been tracking us. They know what I am now. They know I won’t go with you.”

“You still haven’t told me why.”

We stopped outside a heavy metal door. Calista hesitated for only a second before laying her hand on the ID pad outside of it. I watched her twitch, her face showing only the slightest amount of pain.

“Does it hurt?” I asked softly.

She looked down at me, her soft brown eyes meeting mine. She made a movement as though to tuck my hair behind my ear, but stopped herself.

“So much,” she said finally.

She ducked into the room she’d just opened and I was forced to follow.

“This is where you record your voice for the ID scanner in the elevator.” She said, pointing me towards one of the consoles.

“What about the chip?” I asked.

She folded her arms.

“This is the bit of the plan you’re not going to like. And it needs to be implemented as soon as possible.”

She told me. I listened without reacting, but as soon as she was done, I was shaking my head.

“I can’t do that. No way.”

“Then you’ll be stuck in this tower forever! Don’t you understand, Alexa? This is the only way you can leave!”

“Why can’t you come with me?” I shot back. “Calista, that was the plan all along, why has it suddenly changed?”

“Because I’m a cyborg!” she shouted. “I’ve seen what’s going to become of me! I don’t know when, I don’t know how, I only know that soon it won’t be safe for you to be anywhere near me.”

I had so many questions; I didn’t know where to begin. So I turned to the console and began to record the initial stages of my ID check. I didn’t know when I started crying. I only knew when the lights on the machine wobbled, and a single tear fell to the desk.

“My last conscious act will be to get you out of here,” Calista was saying behind me. “But this is the last time you’ll see me.”

I finished the ID check and stared, unblinking, at the green “AUTHORISED” that flashed up on the screen.

“I’m not leaving you,” I whispered, my throat tight.

“You have to. Now, come on.” Her hands wrapped around mine for the final time. “When we go back down to your floor, we have to act normal. We can’t give anything away.”

“So this is goodbye,” I said, my voice flat. “After everything... Calista... I can’t even begin to thank you. And,” my voice caught and my hands trembled. The older woman gripped tighter. “I’m so sorry, Calista. I’m so sorry.”

She pulled me into an embrace and I clung to the only woman I’d ever cared about. I wanted to stay there forever, feeling loved, feeling safe, but too soon she was pulling away.

“Come on,” she commanded, and I followed her for the last time.