Chapter Text
Research Journal Article #1
Throughout history, numerous individuals harbored the belief that the fae were responsible for various afflictions, including mental illnesses, neurological disorders, and sudden infant death syndrome. Despite the growing amount of research in the field of psychology, many of these illnesses providing scientific explanations for many of these maladies, a lingering question persists: Could these illnesses, in fact, be the consequence of angering the fae and do they possess the capability of inflicting such conditions?
The findings, though inconclusive, have unveiled the capabilities of this family to exert influence in this regard. When provoked, these entities demonstrate the capacity to retaliate by using such means. Presently, there exist seven specimens in containment. Leveraging their abilities holds promise for a number of experiments which have been and continue to be conducted.. The experiments that have thus been conducted have shown to have the prospective treatment of a range of diseases and extension of human life.
Director Adam Bright.
Renne taps her pale, slender fingers gently on the desk. The action pulls Adam Bright from his work, and thoughts, disrupting his concentration. He abruptly jerks his head towards the standing woman, shooting her an annoyed glance as he closes his journal. She fixes her gaze meekly on him with an awkward smile.
“Are you certain of this idea of yours?” She finally musters the courage to question him. Her voice is intentionally soft, avoiding any hint of passing judgment on her superior.
“Yes.” He spoke curtly, a clear sign of not welcoming any questioning.
She tucks a strand of her mouse brown hair behind her ear. She avoids making eye contact with him instead finding the floor interesting. The tension in the room is now suddenly thick even though the conversation had hardly started.
“May I speak freely?” She ventures further, despite his signals to drop it.
“You already are.”
“It’s just… I’m growing a bit concerned.” As the conversation continued the color began to drain from her face causing her to appear even paler than usual. Her current complexion along with her typical pastel attire made her dissolve into the white walls of the building as if she was some sort of spectral presence that would usually go unseen.
“I don’t need you to enjoy your job, I just need you to do it.” Adam replied coldly. He fixed his gaze out the window, not being bothered to look at his assistant. At times Adam found the difference between them beneficial and other times he found it irritating. Today was one of the latter. She rarely questioned him but when she felt it necessary she would beat around the bush in a way that would make talking to her akin to pulling teeth.
He was growing tired of constantly arguing his point. He wasn’t a patient man. Nor an empathetic man. He was growing tired of no one listening to him. He was tired of being unheard. He'd had enough of this back and forth with just about everyone. The constant arguing in circles but despite the exhaustive arguments, everyone else failed to come up with any better ideas. He’s seen enough. He’d endured enough. His anger was warranted. He was over the ethics committee giving him a hard time.
“They aren’t exactly forgiving creatures and you’ve seen what they consider pranks. Do you really want to see what they would do when they’re angry?” Her voice came out a meek murmur. Possibly out of sympathy, possibly out of fear of her superior.
“I’m well aware of what they are capable of and what methods they go to when angered.”
"I'm a bit worried about you being involved with this if I'm honest..." She continued. Her gentle tone started to sound condescending to him.
Adam turned to face her with a livid look, narrowing his dark brown nearly black eyes at her. He attempted to regain his composure. She instinctively stepped back from him with a fearful look. An outburst wouldn't help his case after all.
"If it was your child that was lost due to them I'm sure you'd think differently." He replied coldly.
“You have other children to think about now, Director. What happened with your daughter was tragic but it was a long time ago. And you don’t even know if they are to blame. You need to let it go for the sake of your other children. What you are doing could put their lives in danger. You don't even know for sure if they're to blame for Sarah's death.”
Adam balled his hand, knuckles turning white, and breath rigid with anger. His assistant lifted her hands in surrender.
“I'm just voicing my concern over this because you should be concerned for your living children. Suppose they weren't going after you before they sure will now. Do you really know what you're doing here? Do you think we have the manpower to take them on?"
“We can’t let things go on the way they are. It's about time we stood up to them. They made their own bed. I'm just making them lie in it. My decision is final.”
A heavy silence filled the room. His assistant knew better than to keep pushing him so she dropped the topic.
"How are the kids? It's been a while since I heard you talk about them. When was the last time you went home?”
“They’re fine. Mikell can handle them.”
“Last you told me he was struggling with one of your other kids.”
"Jasper? He’s… He's just opinionated…" Adam's mind went to the last time he spoke to Mikell who had complained a great deal about Jack. It was a shame. The two used to be closer in their youth. Back when Mikell was more of a brother to Jack and less like that of a third parent. But people grow and they change and where Mikell struggled to juggle work and a family Jack never saw him as any real authority figure and with TJ and Claire being as close as they were it left Jack being somewhat of a black sheep of the family. Adam occasionally would worry that he put too much responsibility on Mikell but there were bigger fish to fry. He had more important matters and couldn’t just drop everything when something happened that Mikell could handle on his own.
"That's good?" She replied once again, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Not the way he does it. He got in trouble at school recently. He got pretty mouthy with the teacher apparently." The more Adam thought about him the more he realized how much Jack reminded him of his wife. Who was also too outspoken and too argumentative and of course Jack drove him just about as crazy as Evelyn did.
"Oh… Maybe you should look into homeschooling. I know some lovely professors."
"I don't think it's the school that's the problem, he's just argumentative and doesn't like being told what to do."
"Have you ever considered seeing a doctor?"
"Don't tell me you believe in that pseudoscience psychology crap. There is nothing wrong with my son."
"I'm not saying there is."
A brief silence came between them before Adam interrupted it.
"I'm going home."
"Alright… Goodnight Director."
"Goodnight."
And with that, they both left the room parting ways. Adam found himself lost in his thoughts. He couldn't help but think of everything that has happened because of them, and everything that would continue to happen if they didn’t do something to stop it. The incident with Sarah was a clear message sent. They were prepared to fight back and they could certainly do more to humans than humans could to them.
There is one contained in the humanoid wing but for how long?
We are learning about them but they still know more about us. Maybe more in general.
But you know what? To hell with that. Let them be mad. Let them know we aren’t afraid to stoop to their level. If they want a war we’ll give them a war.