Chapter Two

“This isn’t outside, this isn’t outside - this is just a bigger room, with absolutely no floors; which is worse.” It looked beautiful, the water was clear; crystal clear; everything in the water was visible. Giant snakeheads, Bull sharks, Stingrays, Alligatorgar, Electric Catfish etc. . . . They were all there, swimming peacefully - swallowing small salmon, and whatever other smaller fish were in front of their mouths. The all swam without any struggles or care, as if swimming within each other’s presence was a normal scenario.

“First day of training.” Derek’s back was towards us, and his arms extended in glory of the surroundings in the room.

 

The majority of everything was water, and there were small platforms floating around the surface, with thin pathways of floating tiles to connect each platform to one another; but I kind of liked it, it felt free and this was a sight that not everyone had the opportunity to see, yet alone imagine to the smallest detail.

“This isn’t outside, he said we were going outside!”  Shane was in the midst of crying from disappointment, I felt bad, and a slight panic in my heart beat, but I tried not to let it show.

“I thought we were going outside.” I said it, but I didn’t have a single hint of care in my voice, so Derek didn’t sound too alarmed, when he replied.

“I never said that we were going outside, you . . . both just assumed that, and I gracefully ignored your hopes and dreams, and decided not to correct your train of thought.” He kept on walking forward as he explained this to us.

“But if you must hear these words come out of my mouth, I’ll tell you this, we’ll be going outside soon, this is just a little test, and then we’ll take it from there.” I took a deep breath in and didn’t let go of it, I forgot how, but Shane said what I was thinking for the most part.

“A test, what kind of test, this plan seems fishy, both literally and metaphorically speaking.”  I could hear Derek laugh in front of me, no one ever encounters Shane, I didn’t understand, or remember, it was all a blur; did I say that, or did Shane?

“Yes it is a little fishy isn’t it? Don’t worry about it, be optimistic, if they were all dead, the smell would be a lot worse.” Derek stopped on a very much empty platform, there were two chairs, I wondered where Shane was going to be sitting, or Derek either one. Beside one of the chairs was a huge black sports bag, and a laptop on a table, which was horrible, because this platform wasn’t the sturdiest thing in the world. He went up and put his hand in the bag, taking out a single pair of black slacks, and threw them at me.

“Ok buddy, shirt off pants down, put those ones on and I'll explain the rest from there.”  I looked around for some sort of corner, but it was all open space, Shane turned around, but Derek sat down in his chair, and didn’t bother turning around, just putting his arms up and his hands behind his head to watch the show; I really hope he doesn’t swing that way.

“Where am I supposed to change?”  I was serious, I didn’t want all eyes to be all on me, but this wasn’t something that Derek thought of, or could even understand being somewhat embarrassing and uneasy for some people.

“Right there, you’re a man, we’ve all seen n*****s before, and you’re not exposing any junk, how did you change into your gym close in high school?” His eyes shrunk as he squinted, testing me again I'm assuming.

“I changed in the boys changing room, but that was before puberty and understanding what I had in between my legs, and why I had so many . . . “  I looked at Shane who was now facing me, arms crossed and him shaking his head in disappointment.

“Don’t say things like that out loud Reggie, it’s not normal for kids to not hit puberty before they reach high school, if anything they should be going through it.”  Derek looked at me with a smirk on his face, I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I found myself changing in front of Derek, but I looked like an awkward, and demented Hindu dancer; trying to cover as much as possible, when in conclusion I was exposing more flesh, squirming around with my hands and legs stuck in their tiny little fabric tunnels.

 

I could hear Shane laughing with Derek, I gave them a glare, but they just laughed more, my head was half way through the neck hole, and all mushed into one big blob, and my stomach was exposed, while my arms and hands were covered, stuck in between the shirt’s sides, up in the air. Eventually I made it into the pants, and managed to take the shirt off.  

“Ok, you ready?” He didn’t even give me time to respond.

“Great get in.”  Derek’s voice had nothing in it, he spoke like it was an everyday thing, like I should have done this during my childhood at some point, well news flash for him I never got to it. Shane started to freak out, like he was the one who was going to get wet, and possibly killed during this procedure.

“I don’ t think so, I'm not going in there, what the hell is that going to prove, are you working for someone who hired you to kill me?” I somewhat expected him to laugh, but he did nothing of the kind, he did the opposite, he stood up and walked towards me. is footsteps reminded me that I was on an extremely wobbly platform, it leaned from side to side, as Derek’s footstep made waves with the water underneath us. I didn't bother moving away, I was far from the edge, so I saw no threat towards his lack of knowledge of what we call personal space.

“No, if I were trust me, you would know.” his first threat to me, it didn’t bother me all that much to be perfectly honest.

“And why is that?” Derek’s face gleamed, he was expecting the question, like this was on explanation, that he adored to share, or made him look tough or something.

“Because I’d tell you, I always find it more fun to kill things that know that they aren’t dying, but aren’t going to live to see tomorrow.” His smile wasn’t fake, even though I didn’t know that his smiles weren’t real before, this smile showed a glimpse of his personality, he looked like a very bitter man, who used poor fashion to cope with whatever pain and suffering he was forced to deal with every day, but I tried not give away anything to show that I notice his little slip up.

“Now, get it.”

 

Immediately shot back to the first problem that we had; the water. Water doesn’t bother me; fish don’t even bother me, its deadly fish I have a problem with, especially when they’re in the water that I just so happen need to swim in. I looked into the crystal clear water, I could see every scale of each fish that swam by, they were all beautiful, but I didn't want to touch them anytime soon. Out of nowhere, a sharp pain attacked the center of my spine, and water began to fill my lungs. My arms fought against the water, making the situation worse, as I kicked whatever fish happened to be near me, I could see Derek's face, he was waiting for me to take control; but Shane was on the ground, laughing his a*s off. "Ohmygosh, you look like a . . . HA! Y-y-you want a . . . floatie?" He barely got the sentence out, because of the laughter that was attacking him. The louder he got, the more pissed off I became, the more I wanted control over the situation - just to shut him up. I tried to float on the water, still flinch at the fish that insisted to swim against me, or jump on top of me.

 

"Good, gain control, that’s what you need, stop flinching, you need to understand that there in the water and curious, not hungry." Derek's voice was soothing compared to fines that whooshed against my ears, but his voice was the only one I could hear. At this very moment I was normal, because Shane had vanished; it was just Derek, and I. The more I thought about, the calmer I became, the silence was now a soothing sensation, rather than a torturous moment. I took one breath, and allowed my body to slump down beneath the water, where an new world was to be explored; I was face to face with creatures, that many wish to never encounter, but it felt as if the weren't there, they were nothing but a figment of my imagination. Three loud bangs began to echo through the water - disturbing the peace of the waters underneath, I came back up to the surface, Derek was farther, or I had swam further away. He signaled me to come back to him. As I made my way, the fish had begun to part their ways to make a clear path in the direction I was swimming in when I got close to them.

 

Once I was in arm’s length of the platform, I had made a single leap to sit on the edge; my feet still in the water. He threw a towel at me, and I began to wipe myself down dry.

"How long do you think you were in the water for?" Derek didn't look at me, he just knelt down trying to catch one of the smaller fish in his hand.

"I don't know, maybe five, ten minutes." I didn't know if he heard me, my towel was over my head when I spoke out my answer, and he didn't respond for some time, he just proceeded to fumble his hand in the water. I looked at him and opened my mouth to repeat myself.

"I heard you, and you’re wrong, you were in the water for a good half hour." I didn't really remember it, I don't even remember coming up for air. I didn't say anything, which I think explained my surprise to the time I spent in the water with the fish.

"So now you know what control can feel like." I looked up at him, placing the towel down to my side, and looking at the side of his face.

"And how do you know I felt control to begin with, what if I was just terrified - filled with fear or something?" I could see a smile appear across his face, and his neck turn to force his face to look at mine.

"Because Shane isn't hear, am I right?" No one has seen Shane, or if they did, they always ignored him.

"Maybe." Derek smiled and leaned his head closer to me to whisper,

"He's not here, you and I both know that." He went back to attempting to catch a fish.

"Ok he's not here, you happy?" I didn't like the feeling of knowing that he knew; it was different, which made me uncomfortable.

 

“What now?” I wanted something to distract me, or make me panic, I wanted Shane back, but in the end I think I liked it, possibly I was in denial, but I’ll never really know. I looked at Derek- the towel now crumbled up in my lap. I could see the side of his lip curl up.

“It’s common for a project to feel confident enough on the first day to climb up to the next level.” He finally caught a fish, the water splashed around in all directions, as its fines hit the water. He looked at me, as he stroked the fish in his hands; as if it were his pet of some kind, one that required oxygen to breath.

“These fish were all feed, we’ll work up your confidence and physical . . . state, before I put you in again with the starving fish, now that’s where the danger kicks in.”  He started to laugh to himself, as he put the fish back in the water - it was starting to go limp. Me on the other hand, I was experiencing a s**t ton of emotions.

“Are you mad?” Is what managed to burst through my mouth first.

“No I’m actually very happy right now. Next we’ll work on your facial readings, but thank you for your concern anyways.”  He smiled at me, and it reminded me that he was in charge.

“Hey so what I miss?” Shane was behind me, he sounded eager to get caught up, my head sunk down to what felt like in between my knees.

 

Shane didn’t bother to speak, I could feel Derek looking down on me, why in the hell am I here? Derek walked closer to me and taped the end of my foot with the side of his. “Stop being so damn gullible, how old are you, forty five . . .  fifty? I’m not going to put you in a pool of starving dangerous fish.” He spat out his annoyance with a ugh sound, I didn’t mind it though, it made me feel human, like I was a part of a family once again, when people got annoyed with me for logical things; then again I’ve been locked up for more years that I can remember, who am I to judge what was logical or not anymore?  I looked at Shane before I looked back to Derek, he was standing about four steps away from me, his hands behind his back rocking back and forth on his heels; his lips pinched together, as if he were anxious for something.

 

“We need to talk,” Derek spoke out, and then turned himself around and went back for the doors without turning to see if I was following him or not, I sat unmoved.

“Don’t bother following that jack a*s, he’s a fool with title, nothing more, let him leave you here, then we can find our way out and live the few last years we have living in the real world,” Shane whispered in my ear. I was considering it, I didn’t want to be someone’s puppet.

“If you don’t catch up by the time I reach the door you’re going to be locked in here, and I won’t come back in here until you’ve lost all of your sanity - or you can come with me and become the man I need you to be, either way works in my benefit.” Derek's voice traveled through the room.  The only thing that was facing me was the palms of his hands, other than that his back was to me, as he continued to walk on forward to the doors, I think his walk had become slightly faster, as if he wanted to lock me in the room; reeking of salt and fish.  I was still sitting.  Shane nudged me,

 

“Hey! Dip-s**t, what the hell is wrong with you, did you not hear him? Losing your sanity . . .  locking in this room. Get up and catch-up.” Shane pushed me up to my feet, and I jogged up to him, not fighting against Shane who was already walking beside him, waving his hand at me to run faster, I could feel my stomach waving in all directions with the blunt force of me running for the first time in years.

“Come on you fat lump, let’s go, you can do better than that.” I looked at Shane and flipped him off, I hated him more than I hated myself at some points; this time being one of them.

Derek opened the door, and began to walk through it, Shane placed his hands on both of his cheeks as if he were a part of the scream. I ran harder than I thought I could to the point that I was on automatic pilot, and I couldn’t feel my legs running or my feet hitting the ground, pulling me closer to the door, I made it through the door, by the sliver that was still between the door and the station once I had made it, I bent over an put my hands on my knees and gasped for air.  Shane started clapping, still standing beside Derek, his arms were crossed as he looked at me with a disappointed grin on his face.  

“Good job fat a*s, you actually made it,” he laughed at the end, and then stopped clapping once he looked at Derek and over-dramatically mimicked his stance, leaning on one hip and crossing his arms. It took too much effort, but I managed to find my voice.

“What?”  I knew that I sounded more impatient than frustrated.  Derek bent his head over to the train, and began to walk again; this time much slower.

“Let’s go, we have a lot to do,” there were no hints in his voice, he seemed to be more serious now.

“Hey Reggie,” I snarled at him, my name was Reginald! Derek was the one that glanced back at me, and then looked back to where he was walking.  

“I don’t want to alarm you, but I think Derek was lying about being nice - so I wanted to say my goodbyes and I love yous now before he kills you . . . “ I was still staring through Shane hoping that he would be able to feel the burn, he took a gulp before he continued.

“Also when you're gone can I have your bed?”  My jaw began to tighten, as I tried not to scream out to Shane, I followed Derek onto the train, and the rest of the ride was silent. Derek's arms still crossed, and his eyes on me until we got off to where I had started.

 

Author's Note

Hope you liked the chapter, if there are any ideas for the next chapter or to improve this one, please don't be scared to leave a comment.