PROJECT: CAYRO

Star Zaraki:

September 5, 2025

03:43 CST

The Death Reckoning

Ship location: Unknown

I blinked against the grogginess clinging to my mind, slowly forcing myself awake. As I sat up, my head collided with something hard and metallic, sending sharp stars of pain bursting through my vision. Cursing under my breath, I tried to focus, but the darkness was absolute, swallowing everything around me. Where the hell am I?

I reached out, my hands searching the space around me. The surface beneath me was soft—definitely a bed, but not my bed. My fingers traced metal struts overhead, brushing against the fabric of what had to be an upper bunk. It was similar to my room on the Autumn, but something felt off, wrong. My gut twisted with unease. Was I even on the Autumn?

I took a deep breath, hoping for something familiar, but the air was sterile, tinged with the unmistakable scent of pine cleaner and bleach. No fabric softener, no wax melts that the crew used to keep things feeling like home. This place was cold, clinical. The crew didn’t use pine cleaner. Where the hell had they taken me?

Lying back down, I tried to piece together what had happened. The last thing I remembered was standing up with Cayro, planning to grab something to eat. Then, out of nowhere, a sharp pain hit my neck. My hand instinctively moved to the spot, fingers brushing against a small bump that still stung slightly. My heart pounded as the memory resurfaced. They’d hit me with something—a tranquilizer, maybe. As I shifted, I noticed a soreness in my elbow. My other hand found a piece of gauze taped to the spot. Someone had drawn my blood.

The realization made my stomach churn. They’d stuck me like a lab rat, taken my blood while I was unconscious. The thought of it made my skin crawl, my pulse quicken.

I quickly checked the rest of my body, searching for more signs of whatever they’d done to me. Thankfully, I found none. But my clothes were gone. In their place was a sterile, uncomfortable medical gown. My heart raced as I processed the situation: I didn’t remember passing out, I woke up in a strange place, with marks on my neck and arm, wearing a medical gown that wasn’t mine. I’d been drugged, abducted, stripped, and examined. The reality of it all slammed into me, leaving me breathless.

Great… just great.

Taking a few deep breaths, I forced myself to stay calm. Panicking wouldn’t help. I carefully sat up again, this time avoiding the metal struts above me. As I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, I wobbled slightly, but quickly regained my balance. My hands felt along the walls, trying to map out my prison. That’s when I heard it—the soft hiss of a pneumatic door opening.

I spun around, instinctively raising my arm to shield my eyes as the room flooded with harsh, blinding light. Blinking rapidly, I lowered my arm, letting my eyes adjust to the brightness. A tall man with blonde hair stood in the doorway, clad in a military uniform with the U.S. flag on his right shoulder. He held a plate of food and a canteen in one hand. Behind him, I could make out a shorter woman with an M-4 rifle resting in her hands, her eyes locked on me.

My heart sank. I was in deep shit. The U.S. military had abducted me.

“Hello, Star. I am Captain Edwards of the U.S.S. Death Reckoning,” the man said, stepping into the room with a cool, commanding presence. He placed the food and canteen on the floor beside the bed, his movements controlled and deliberate.

I swallowed hard, trying to wet my dry throat. “Why am I here?” I rasped, my voice betraying my fear.

“You are a known member of the terrorist group, the SAF. We have captured you and are escorting you to Langley Air Force Base for questioning and medical evaluation,” he stated, his voice cold, almost robotic. “Do not try to escape, or we will be forced to use lethal force. It would be in your best interest to cooperate with my orders and any other orders that come from my crew.”

Before I could respond, he turned on his heel and left, the door hissing shut behind him, sealing me back into the darkness.

The door shut with a final, echoing click, plunging me back into the oppressive darkness. For a moment, the silence was suffocating, pressing in on all sides, before a single overhead light flickered on, casting a cold, sterile glow over the room. My heart twisted painfully at the thought of what might have happened to the Autumn and the rest of the crew. Tears welled up, blurring my vision as the weight of it all crashed down on me. My legs buckled, and I sank to the floor, knees hitting the hard surface with a thud, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony ripping through my chest.

The captain hadn’t mentioned anything about the others. He only spoke of taking me to the one place I never wanted to return to. What had happened to them? Were they… dead? The thought tore at me, a gaping wound that I couldn’t close. And Cayro… the loss of him hurt the most. Why was it him that I couldn’t bear to lose? When had he become so important to me? Was it that night on the upper platform, or had it started even earlier?

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the world, but all I could see were those last moments with Cayro. I’d never felt at ease around other people, always keeping them at arm’s length, but Cayro had been different. There was something about him that drew me in, something that soothed the restless darkness that always lingered at the edge of my mind. That darkness was a constant presence now, seething with anger and loss. Cayro wasn’t the first guy I’d been around who was my age, but he was the first who made me feel… happy.

I thought back to a few months ago when we had been in Australia. A colonel from the Australian Air Force had visited the Autumn to meet with the Captain, bringing his son along—a boy my age. We’d spent a week at the base while the Captain negotiated some shipment agreement. During that time, the colonel’s son had fallen for me, head over heels. He was attractive and kind, but I just didn’t feel anything for him. It wasn’t that he did anything wrong—I just… couldn’t. There was nothing there. But with Cayro, it was different. He wasn’t chasing after me, wasn’t trying to win my affection. He just… was. And it made me feel safe, like I could breathe easier around him. There was also that darkness, the one that first stirred when I saw him in the med bay. It had pushed me toward him, as if it had always known he was meant to be my partner.

The realization that I would never see him again hit me like a physical blow, and my heart shattered all over again. The pain was a burning, consuming thing, spreading through me until I couldn’t stop the tremors that wracked my body.

I glared at the food the captain had left, the sight of it turning my stomach. Slowly, I dragged myself to a corner of the room, as far from the door as I could get. I let the darkness inside me swell and take over, wrapping around me like a protective cloak. It sealed away my grief, my despair, replacing them with something colder, harder—anger. I knew there was no going back from this. They might have taken me, but they wouldn’t get what they wanted. Instead, they would get something much worse—a monster, born from the darkness they had awakened.