Anomaly

(POV: Emily Parker)

Emily wasn’t a stranger to frustration. Working for an organization dedicated to the discovery, analysis, and, when necessary, destruction of anomalous phenomena and entities had made setbacks part of her daily routine. And not just hers, any seasoned member of the organization who actually knew what they were doing dealt with the same reality.

There had been countless times when Emily spent entire weeks investigating a single anomaly without managing to understand even its most basic operating principles. Days blurred into nights, reports piled up across her desk, and theories were formed only to be discarded shortly after.

It was an exhausting process, but an unavoidable one. After all, no two anomalies were ever truly alike. Some might share superficial traits, but their capabilities rarely followed the same patterns.

Powers observed in one entity almost never appeared in another, and even in the rare cases where a group of anomalies seemed to behave like a cluster or “pack,” each individual still had unique quirks that defied any attempt at simple categorization.

In short, what worked to contain, study, or neutralize one anomaly almost never worked on the next. Every case demanded a new approach, new hypotheses, and above all, a great deal of patience. So while the current situation was frustrating, Emily was already used to hitting dead ends.

But that didn’t make it any less frustrating. Seated at the monitoring station, watching the constant fluctuations in the graphs displayed across the panels in front of her, Emily So let out a long, exasperated sigh.

The bluish glow of the screens reflected in her tired eyes as she lightly pressed two fingers against her temple, trying to ease the headache beginning to form.

At this point, Emily had no idea how to proceed. She had run every test she could think of, blood work, neurological scans, continuous vital monitoring, cognitive assessments, even a full-body MRI. Nothing. Absolutely nothing pointed to any abnormality in Charlotte.

By all accounts, good or bad, Charlotte was nothing more than a completely ordinary human girl. And that was exactly what Emily refused to accept. Her gaze drifted back to one of the graphs gently oscillating on the screen.

The variations were subtle, almost imperceptible to anyone less experienced, but she knew them too well to ignore. The recent fluctuations were real. And every single one of them came from Charlotte.

Emily didn’t know what was happening, let alone how to explain the source of those strange signals. But there was one thing she was absolutely certain of: the equipment wasn’t wrong. Something was definitely happening to Charlotte.

Still, no matter how much Emily combed through reports, records, and fragments of available information, she found nothing. No concrete lead. No hidden pattern. Nothing. (Did I miss something?) she wondered.

Her gaze grew distant for a moment, fingers resting near her temple as she absentmindedly massaged it. The frustration only grew with each line she reviewed and each hypothesis she discarded: (Anomalies... anomalous events...) she thought, closing her eyes briefly. (They never follow a rule. The previous one is never like the next. That’s exactly what makes them so hard to predict)

Emily let out another long, silent sigh: (Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way...)

The thought made her frown. For years, she had been trained to search for patterns, connections, and recurring behaviors. That was how most problems were solved. But anomalies weren’t most problems. They existed precisely to defy logic, expectations, and precedent.

Emily’s eyes returned to the data in front of her: (If she really is one of the sisters of the [Angel of Death], then standard methods probably won’t get me anywhere)

She drummed her fingers lightly on the desk, thinking: (I’ll need to think outside the box. Find an alternative that’s never been considered for an anomaly... something so unusual I wouldn’t even think of it under normal circumstances)

She fell silent for a few seconds, staring into nothingness as countless possibilities surfaced and vanished in her mind. Then she sighed again, this time with a trace of exhaustion: (But what?)

Her thoughts drifted aimlessly for a moment, scattered by the tension accumulated over the past hours. She barely noticed time passing until she felt something lightly touch her shoulder. Her eyes blinked a few times, clearing the faint haze clouding her mind. Turning her head, she found Victor standing beside her.

He had a serious, firm expression, arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were fixed on the other side of the observation glass, tracking Charlotte’s every movement before shifting back to the data-filled screens.

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Victor remained silent for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts. Then he let out a tired sigh: “If we keep going like this, I have a feeling we’re not getting anywhere”

His voice carried frustration from hours of analysis without answers. He ran a hand over his face and glanced again at the accumulating data: “And to be honest, Charlotte’s parents don’t seem too happy about this endless stream of tests either”

Emily followed his gaze through the glass, watching the girl, and, briefly, the couple waiting outside. Victor shook his head: “If we don’t find anything relevant, we won’t have a choice but to release her” His tone grew heavier: “Keeping her here just because we can would be a mistake. A big one”

He paused briefly before continuing: “Beyond the ethical implications, it would create a ridiculous amount of problems down the line. Those two aren’t exactly people without influence”

His fingers tapped lightly on the table as he studied the data again: “And honestly?” he added in a lower, more thoughtful tone. “I don’t think they’d stay quiet about it for long”

Victor was being logical. Emily knew that. Still, she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling lingering at the back of her mind. It was like a word stuck on the tip of her tongue, or a missing piece in a nearly complete puzzle. Something was wrong. Something important was being overlooked.

Frowning slightly, she crossed her arms as she watched the data scrolling across the monitors. Lines of numbers, graphs, and biometric readings filled the screens in front of her, but none of them seemed to contain the answer she was looking for.

Her gaze eventually drifted away from the equipment and landed on Charlotte’s family, who were observing the procedures through the reinforced glass just a few steps away. On the other side of the room, Laura and Rupert stood beside Charlotte, assisting her during the tests and carefully monitoring every result obtained.

The two of them exchanged occasional remarks while adjusting equipment and recording information, but unfortunately, none of it was helping Emily find what she was looking for. In fact, the more they progressed, the more questions seemed to arise.

Each new data point only seemed to open the door to further uncertainty, as if they were peeling back layer after layer of a much larger mystery. Emily pressed her lips into a thin line, feeling the growing frustration building inside her. And if there was one thing any respectable scientist hated above all else, it wasn’t being wrong. It was simply not knowing.

“What do you want me to do?” Emily asked, rubbing her temple with two fingers. The exhaustion in her voice was clear: “We can’t find anything, no matter how hard we look. It’s like she’s just a completely ordinary human, even though all our data says otherwise”

She let out a long sigh and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms: “And even if we point that out to the girl’s family, all we’ll do is convince them our machines are malfunctioning. If that happens...” Emily paused briefly, shaking her head: “It’s going to be hard to continue examining Charlotte”

Victor didn’t respond right away. His gaze remained fixed on the table, heavy with concern. Charlotte didn’t press either. At that moment, they both knew Emily was right, there wasn’t much they could do with the information they had. The silence that followed filled the room for several seconds.

Emily’s fingers began tapping against the surface of the table in an irregular rhythm as she sank into thought. Her expression grew distant, her brows slightly furrowed. There was something there. An idea. A possible solution. She could feel it hovering at the edge of her mind, frustratingly close.

The sensation was so strong it almost irritated her. It was like trying to recall a forgotten word or a dream that vanished the moment you woke up. Emily narrowed her eyes for a moment. Where was this feeling coming from? Something wasn’t adding up. It was as if she were ignoring an obvious clue, something right in front of her.

Victor, standing beside Emily, let out a long sigh at her sharp, decisive responses. For a moment, his gaze drifted beyond the glass, absentmindedly watching the activity on the other side as he organized his thoughts.

Leaning slightly closer, he began to murmur in a low voice, just loud enough for Emily to hear: “All this weird stuff is stressing me out more than I’d like to admit...”

He ran a hand through his hair and let out a short, humorless laugh: “Actually, this reminds me of one of my missions in a small anomalous park. At first glance, it looked like a normal park, nothing special. But the truth was, there was a massive labyrinthine forest inside it”

Victor shook his head, still unsettled by the memory: “And the worst part? I could barely even notice it because the trees completely blocked my view of the bigger picture. I was so focused on what was right in front of me that I couldn’t see the whole system. If it weren’t for my abnormal intuition warning me something was off, I probably would’ve been trapped there forever”

He let out another sigh and crossed his arms: “Thinking about it now, it was a horrible experience”

However, Emily barely registered the rest of his explanation. One specific sentence had stuck in her mind: (Not being able to see the forest for the trees...)

Her gaze turned distant as she examined the idea from different angles. Piece by piece, things began to click into place in her mind. The silence around her faded as her thoughts accelerated. Then, suddenly, her eyes widened. Emily stood up so quickly her chair slid back a few inches, producing a sharp scraping sound against the floor.

“What?!” Victor jumped slightly, turning toward her.

A bright, excited smile formed at the corner of Emily’s lips, her eyes shining with realization as the answer finally revealed itself: “That’s it!”

Victor looked completely confused: “Huh?”

“I know where we’re not looking!” she declared, barely able to contain her excitement: “Our method has been wrong from the very beginning”

Victor frowned: “Wait, what are you talking about?”

Emily began pacing back and forth, clearly organizing the ideas now forming at increasing speed: “We’ve been analyzing every detail individually, every clue in isolation... but we never stopped to look at the whole. We’re so focused on the trees that we forgot to look for the forest” The excitement in Emily’s voice was contagious.

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