Sefirian Chronicles: Avielle's Inferno

Chapter 5: Institute of Supernetics

December 2016. Institute of Supernetics.

"My name is Antonio, and I represent the Institute of Supernetics."

Avielle stared at the man, waiting for him to explain further. Because at the moment, none of the words he just said rang a bell in her head. He could have said that he was from NASA, and it still wouldn't make a lick of sense.

"I sense your confusion. Allow me to explain," Antonio pacified her, looking at her sincerely. "The Institute of Supernetics is a safehaven for creatures like us. We do research and train able-bodied volunteers for the purpose of defending our kind when the next war comes."

"Creatures like us?" Avielle inquired. "What are you?"

Antonio sighed before grimly opening his mouth and showing Avielle his retractable fangs. The young teen paused, seeing the hints of red creeping from Antonio's irises.

"I am a vampire," The older man explained. "And so are about a third of the population here in the Institute."

"Are all supernaturals in here?" Avielle asked.

"Unfortunately, the Institute can't house all of the supernatural population. We just don't have the funds for that and we're barely able to train our fighters as it is."

"How did you find me?"

Antonio gave her a pitying look. "Isidore reached out to us the moment he found you and we've been watching your progress with him ever since."

"Watching?" Avielle asked, the mention of her former mentor causing unresolved anger within her to bubble up.

"It's more like monitoring. Isidore is... was one of our most senior elders and he found it best to acclimatize you himself. And I am truly sorry that he had to go this way."

Avielle tore her gaze away from Antonio, looking down at the tiled floor intently lest she lose control. The vampire gave Avielle with an understanding look. He knows a person exercising control when he sees one. A long, long time ago, that was him suppressing the urge to lose control during a feeding frenzy.

"Those humans," Avielle spat the last word out, revolted. "Who are they?"

"They are from SIDHE. Society of International Defense on Humanoid Ethnos. Their main objective is to eliminate supernaturals, but intel tells us that they are conducting unethical experiments by doing selective genome sequencing on human-supernatural hybrids to produce monsters."

Avielle's breath hitched in her throat. "Do these monsters lack a soul?"

"I am not able to tell whether a being has a soul or not, but highly confidential videos leaked to us and I can tell you these monsters are nothing short of an abomination. They're mutilated, disfigured and rabid in a sense that I wouldn't put it past them to bite the hand that feeds them."

Antonio whipped out his smartphone from his pocket, going through some of his files before finding what he was looking for and flipping the screen back to Avielle.

The young Sefir's fists clenched into fists once more as she saw a beast inside a large room, strapped and wailing in confusion. It's similar to the bear-like beast she fought from the forest. Then she saw several heavily armed men enter the room and start prodding the beast with electric zappers and tasers. Avielle's eyes never left the screen as the beast grew angrier and angrier by the second, until finally, one of its restraints snapped. Then the video conveniently ended.

Both supernaturals kept quiet for a few seconds after the video ended, Antonio silently putting his phone back while Avielle finally understood why the monsters she fought were almost insane and that highly destructive.