I Get to Punch an Idiot

In the face. Despite his glasses.

Now that I've wasted some time doing useless flashbacks, time to get on with present time (in case you have short term memory loss, I'm in my white box).

The door to my room swung open, and a scientist with a dorky hairdo and blocky glasses strode in briskly, accompanied by two burly guards, both almost identical: buzz-cuts, ripped bodies, and intelligence equal to that of a walnut.

"Hello...." he checked his clipboard, "Subject 125678." 

"Close, but not quite. There's a three and a four between the two and the five, but you are getting better. If you keep practicing, maybe someday you'll be able to count all the way to ten." I said encouragingly. The scientist peered disapprovingly over the tops of his horn-rimmed glasses, and made a mark on his paper.

"Ooh, did I get a good grade? Mom says that if I fail one more class, then I'll be grounded for a week." I informed him with a smirk.

"Are you finished?" he tapped his foot impatiently.

"Ah, no. Could I just get a burger to go?" I smiled my biggest smile at him sweetly, and he sighed.

"This has to do with your sibling who came here with you." I immediately plopped down on my bed.

"I'm listening." I told him, trying to sound nonchalant, while inside, my heart thudded inside my chest. Auriela! Was she okay? Could I see her?

"As you know, we have been testing on Subject 125679." he informed me, and I literally had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming out What!?? I had no idea that they were testing her, and I remembered once, they had taken Damien away for more testing. He didn't come back for a week, and I cried until my eyes were red, purple, puffy, and sore. When he finally did come back, he was deathly pale, and was too weak to even speak. He only smiled pathetically and held up eight fingers. I tried to give him my food, but his stupid man pride wouldn't let me. I had to sneak some of my food in his bowl when he wasn't looking, so he wouldn't die.

If the same thing happened to Auriela, heads were going to roll.

"Something has gone wrong with the experiment, and the subject is responding poorly. We thought a visit from a familiar face might help it through the experiment. It is preferred that it survives, because we are on the verge of a breakthrough." the white-coated man told me.

Without a word, I stood up, calmly faced the scientist, and punched him in the face.

With a squeal, he fell backwards, dropped his papers, and started to scream as blood streamed from his nose. With a pained expression, the guards helped up the white coated man, and patiently listened as he ordered them to shoot me, then told him that shooting me was against their rules. I stuck out my tongue at the snivelly scientist, and he looked absolutely furious.

"I'll be back tomorrow to take you to your sibling." he hissed at me, snatched up his clipboard, and marched out of the room, the guards following behind. I couldn't help smiling at the small victory, but the smile dripped off my face like the Wicked Witch of the West at a water-park when I remembered how truly small of a victory it was.

Here I am, sitting pretty, with regular water, clean food, and a real toilet, when Damien and the others are crammed into dirty cages, lining the walls like caged pets at the veterinarian's. These people were evil, and they treated us like animals.

But if we could just get out of our cages, we would so totally beat the freaking crap out of them. That's it, I thought. If I could just get everyone out of their cages, we could escape. Guns and guards were no match for hundreds, maybe thousands of kids with super powers. Even if I could just get my hands on a key, then unlock Damien's cage, he could start ripping bars off cages, too. The only problem would be the force fields, like the one on that stretch girl's cage; I had no idea how to shut those down.

However, I couldn't do anything about that problem yet, so I'd just have to cross that bridge when we came to it.

There was also the problem of the electric collars, like the one that shocked Damien when he tried to protect me on that first day. When they had taken me out of my cage five days ago and brought me here, they had sedated me, and I guess they must have attached one to me, too. Whenever I tried to talk telepathically to anyone, they could tell, I guess, and the shocked me until I stopped.

I only tried to contact Damien once, believe me.

The collars only have one remote, I think, so if I can get Damien's from Frankie, we should be okay. I can tell that mine isn't a remote; it's just a system that automatically shocks me, so I just can't use my gift, and I'll be fine.

There was also the issue of me not knowing where I was, or even where the cages were. I'd have to just run and hope for the best, I guess. After a while of running, I'll pinpoint Damien's location.........it's not exactly telepathy, so the shock shouldn't be too great, if at all.

After finalizing my plans, I blindly groped until I found the bed, and crawled into it. The lights had shut off long ago, so I knew it was really late. As if to prove my guess, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

"Come on, let's go." I was awakened by the harsh command, and blearily stared the newcomers. The scientist was back, with his bodyguards, and he sneered at me, pleased because he was interrupting my sleep. 

I screamed in surprise; who knows how long that creeper had been watching me sleep. The scientist chuckled evilly, and I shuddered. 

"Get a move on." he ordered, and I hurriedly complied, although I was a tad confused. Usually, a loud, blaring siren gives me a heart attack every morning. Immediately after, a panel in the wall slides open to reveal a small cubicle with a shower head and cleaning supplies. After exactly ten minutes, the wall slides closed again. Once, I tried to stay inside it after it closed, but all that happened was that I was stuck in a dark and small space for 24 hours. It wasn't fun.

Oh, well.

Rubbing my eyes and yawning, I tumbled out of bed and quickly ran my fingers through my hair, then smoothed out my rumpled clothes. The clean clothes that were in a box by the bed looked just like these-white shirt and pants with white slippers-so I decided to skip changing for today, mainly because I wasn't all the dirty, and also the fact that the guards and the scientist were watching me intently.

"Ready." I informed the scientist, who was polishing his glasses.

"Took you long enough." he complained, sliding the gigantic bifocals back on his nose. I bit back a sarcastic comment as the researcher gestured towards me, and the two guards approached. Each gripped an arm, and commenced dragging me to the door.

"I can walk." I said boldly, jerking my arms free. The guards looked utterly confused, and I sighed. "Me no want you touching arms." I said slowly. They blinked. "I will stab you if you try." I over-enunciated. After a pause, the sentries both began nodding slowly. The scientist rolled his eyes, and motioned for all of us to follow him. I complied quickly, sandwiched in between Dumb and Dumber.

The walk was pretty long, and completely silent. The white halls were void of life, except for the occasional guard and one female scientist that was hurrying through the hallways. She stopped and stared at me, and I rolled my eyes. A quick probe proved-to my surprise-that her mind wasn't shielded from me. Keep staring; I might do a trick. I told her telepathically. She squeaked with fright and scurried away, and I chuckled to myself.

Finally, after many twists and turns in the blank hallways, we stopped in front of a thick, steel door, with a keypad for entry, and a metal bar across the door, about seven inches thick.

"Isn't that a bit much?" I asked, pointing at the bar, and the scientist just smirked at me. He entered something in the keypad, and the door swung open.

"Enjoy." he said sarcastically, and I glanced at him suspiciously as I hesitantly entered the room.

It was dark.

The lights were turned off, I thought.

Wow. I am smart.

  I jumped as the door suddenly clanged shut behind me. Utter darkness fell, and I blinked rapidly to help my eyes adjust to the dark. Eventually, I could make out the shapes in the room: a bed in the corner, a desk next to it, a toilet in another corner, and box in another corner.

In the last corner, the one farthest from the room, a single chair stood, facing the corner, and a shapeless mass occupied the seat.

"Auriela?" I said hesitantly, and the mass stirred faintly, but did not turn and face me. "Auriela, it's me, Adri. They let me come and visit you. I was so-"

"It hurts me, Adri." she spoke suddenly, and her face turned slightly to the side, but not enough for me to see her expression.

"What?" I shuddered at the sound of her voice; it was so calm, and yet held a faint trace of pure madness.

"The light hurts me. It hurts me real bad." Dementia lurked in her words. "Why does the light hurt me, Adri?"

"I don't know." I was unnerved.

"They hurt me, too." she stood, pushing her chair away, her back still to me. Without thinking, I took an involuntary step backwards.

"They?" I stammered.

"They tell me to do awful things, Adri. They're bad voices, Adri." her sweet little voice sent chills down my spine.

"Auriela, I don't know what these people have done to you, but I promise we will make it all better. We leave here, and go live happily ever-"

"YOU LIE!" Auriela screeched, spinning around and facing me. I screamed, and backed into the corner. Auriela's sweet little face was ravaged by insanity, her hair was ratty and matted, and her eyes.....

Her eyes.

Once beautiful brown, they were now a kaleidoscope of changing colors.

Too fast to determine a sure color, but whatever the change, the eyes were always full of deranged anger. 

"NO ONE can take away the voices! They're there, forever, always, always...." she was sobbing now, and on her knees, rocking back and forth, her hands clasped over her ears. "Go away!" she cried. "I don't want to talk anymore! Please, just go away!" She wasn't talking to me. I fell down on my butt and scrunched myself into the corner with the box just as Auriela let out an earsplitting wail, and began to convulse on the floor. I stared, horrified, until the seizure stopped abruptly. She lay there, in a fetal position, no sound, no movement.

"Auriela?" Tears streaked my face out of terror. I crawled over to her still body. "Oh, God, please don't die. Please, Auriela, baby, wake up!" I reached out with trembling fingers, and tapped her head.

Her head jerked up, and her eyes focused on me. Her irises were now blood-red, and brimming with malice. I backpedaled as fast as I could back to my corner, and watched with fear as she bolted up. Her eyes glared at me, and a sinister smile creeped across her face.

"Hello." she said calmly, and began to come closer to me. I couldn't even speak, I was so petrified. Auriela stopped short, and her head twitched.

"No, no, no!! Go away!" Auriela exclaimed, her eyes screwed shut. "No, you can't! I won't let you!"

"Auriela!" I screamed, searching for my Auriela, but finding only this demon in her place.

"I'll kill you all!" Auriela screeched. "All of you will die!" Her face began to change, turning black and scaly, and her eyes became reptilian and cruel. Within seconds, she was more than three times my height, and she roared as her hands and feet grew wicked claws, and her teeth elongated and became points. Wings grew out her back, and a massive tail began to stretch out her backside, with spines lining her tail and back.

My baby sister was a dragon, and all I could think about was that she was ruining her clothes by ripping them apart.

The door was forced open, and the two guards came barreling in, holding guns. With savage yells, they peppered Auriela with projectiles. With a tremendous bellow, Auriela staggered a bit, and I was unmoving, numb, as the two guards snatched me up and hustled me out.

They dumped me unceremoniously on the ground and pointed their guns at the now closed door as an extra precaution as the scientist tapped a code in the keypad, causing another thick, heavy steel door to slide down in front of the original door, and the bar to clang shut across both of them. I sat there, in shock.

"You shot her?" I squeaked. "You killed her?"

"No!" the scientist scoffed. "Of course not. Those were tranquilizer darts, exactly twenty-two of them, each one powerful enough to knock out an elephant."

"Wow." I said sarcastically, picking myself up off the floor. "Think you sedated her enough?"

"Actually, no." As if on cue, a loud roar emanated from the room, and the monster began to throw itself against the locked-down door, which bulged under the weight, but held.

"Hmm." the scientist mused. "It's gotten stronger." He pressed a few more buttons, and four more steel doors closed in front of the other two. "This is most definitely not good." He furiously scribbled on his stupid little clipboard, and I desperately wanted to punch him in the face again.

Author's Note

Oh, yeah, also Adri escapes. Reviews, please!

Reviews

[CrimsonBlaze]

I have to confess that I used the namd Auriela for one of my characters in an RP a few months back. Anyway, about the chapter, it revealed a lot about the horrible truth about Auriela. Her transformation still mystifies me in a eay, and I wonder if Adri might become exactly like her. The chapter went into detail, and to me, focused on Aurelia which was good since her whereabouts were unknown till now. So far so good :)